Hungarian automotive industry: week 7 2017 edition
Last week all eyes were on Opel as news came on a potential acquisition by GM, while Suzuki announced its sales targets for 2017, looking back at which models drove the Japanese brand’s Hungarian sales last year. Let´s recap what the seventh week this year brought in Hungary´s automotive industry.
Manufacturers
Quoting internal sources, Reuters reported last Tuesday that U.S.-based General Motors (GM) is in advanced talks with the French PSA Group on the acquisition of its European concern, Opel.
As it currently stands, GM president said Opel would stay independent even if it ends up in the hands of the PSA Group.
 |
It will be interesting to see what effect the outcome might have on the Szentgotthárd-based Opel plant.
Suzuki is expecting to sell 11,780 new vehicles in Hungary in 2017, which would represent an over 11 percent share in a market with a new-car registration volume projected at 103,000 units.
According to Magyar Suzuki Corporation COO Róbert Krisztián, the company’s strong performance in 2016 was a result of the unexpected success of the new Vitara: the locally-built model sold 6,538 units in Hungary, securing a 23.2 percent share in the local SUV segment.
GSI Hungary Kft., the Hungarian regional centre of U.S.-based GSI Group, will invest HUF 2.3 billion (€7.2 million) in the procurement of machinery and production equipment, while a real estate developer is building a HUF 3 billion (€9.6 million) production unit for the company to use, Zoltán Németh, GSI Hungary Kft. boss, announced last week.
Suppliers
Machine operators at AGC can expect a monthly salary of more than €1,000 (HUF 343,000). Jean-Marc Meunier, the president and CEO of the Japanese group’s European automotive division, said the pressure will be high this year.
 |
Apollo Tyres are expected to launch production at their new Hungarian plant in April. This represents a delay from the company’s original plans, as Apollo Tyres vice-president Neeraj Kanwaar originally announced at the plant’s ground-breaking ceremony in April 2015 that the first tyres would roll off the production line 18 months later, in October 2016. This target was later adjusted to early-2017.
Audi and BMW supplier Salgglas has announced to expand their Salgótarján-based plant with a €2m investment. Salgglas Zrt., the Hungary-based supplier of automotive glass systems, has announced to create 35 jobs and install a new furnace and cutting and grinding machinery with a HUF 770m investment.
New Japanese automotive investments are expected to target Hungary. After German car makers, Japanese automotive OEMs are the second largest drivers of the Hungarian auto sector.
 |
Service providers
The Mol Group is planning to build an electric fast charger network in the CEE region. The group has applied for a European Union aid in partnership with the E.ON Group for the HUF 1.7 billion (€5.5 million) project.
According to the CEO of B&O Engineering Kft., it is difficult to predict how automotive suppliers will be affected by the spread of electric drive systems, but one thing is certain, manufacturers of purpose-built machinery and robot systems are surely to benefit from the wave of machinery-related purchases.
Arconic-Köfém Kft., Miskolc University, Széchenyi István Uniersity and the University of Dunaújváros have formed a consortium. The partners will develop advanced rolled aluminium products for the automotive and machine industries and related sectors.
 |
Education
The Department of Automation and Applied Informatics of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME) has held its competition for autonomous vehicles, Robonaut, for the seventh time.
Students from the department’s electrical engineering and mechatronics MSc courses could participate with scale models capable of avoiding obstacles without human intervention.
