Hungarian automotive industry: week 11
Alcoa changes name, Bosch separates starter motor manufacturing operation, Continental pays higher bonus to Hungarian employees. Let´s recap what week 11 brought in Hungary´s automotive sector.
Manufacturers
Although in early-March Mabi-Bus Kft.'s electric bus was the first such vehicle to complete a round trip between Budapest and Paris, it had a rather serious hiccup this week in the Hungarian capital.
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The electric vehicle's left rear wheels fell off during a test drive in Budapest last week, injuring one person.
The vehicle went to Paris earlier to collect and an award for its designers. Mabi-Bus director Csaba Mészáros said the accident was not a result of a design flaw but faulty externally-sourced components.
Suppliers
Continental Hungary has announced to pay a €600 bonus to its employees after reporting on a highly successful year in 2015. The company registered a profit of €2.73 billion last year, exceeding previous year's results by 15 percent.
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Ganz Engineering és Energetikai Gépgyártó Kft. is expecting a boost in international sales after delivering ten high-performance industrial heating water pumps to the Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant, currently under construction.
Bosch has announced its plan to separate its starter motor manufacturing branch. The long-awaited move came after the works council and trade unions had finally agreed to the changes. Although the idea to transform the corporate structure had been raised earlier, each time it was prevented by the works council.
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The Alcoa name leaves, production stays: after a split announced for the second half of 2016, all three Hungarian locations of the U.S.-based manufacturer of aluminium products will be a part of Arconic, with all 2,000 local staffers continuing work as employees of the new owner.
Service providers
We interviewed the mayor of Komárom last week on the arrival of new automotive suppliers, the execution of infrastructure developments facilitating new investments and the impact of the town's proximity to Slovakia.
The Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency (HIPA) said last week that Hungary remains a favourable destination for foreign direct investments, with provincial towns and regions becoming more and more attractive for investors. HIPA said it is expected to bring HUF 1,400 billion worth of investments to Hungary.
Education
Last week, Hungarian economy minister Mihály Varga held talks with Bozhidar Loukarski, Bulgaria's Minister of Economic Affairs, on regional cooperation development.
The meeting's main topics included dual vocational education, and the Bulgarian minister expressed his wish to initiate further talks on the subject.
