Hungarian automotive industry: week 14 2017 edition
Last week was all about suppliers in Hungary’s automotive industry: Dana building their fourth plant in Győr, Apollo inaugurating the world’s most advanced tyre plant in Gyöngyöshalász. Let’s recap what the 14th week this year brought in Hungary’s automotive sector.
Suppliers
Dana have laid the foundation stone of their latest Hungarian plant, further closing up to the European market. The new plant will produce gear products as well as complete running gears.
“The world’s most advanced tyre plant will start operation at Gyöngyöshalász business park, promoting development not only for Apollo Tyres but also the entire region,” Onkar S. Kanwar, chairman of Apollo Tyres, said at the new plant’s inauguration ceremony.
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Knorr-Bremse Rail Systems Budapest have signed an agreement with the Budapest Mechanical Vocational Training Centre and its two member institutions, Eötvös Lóránt Vocational Secondary School and Szily Kálmán Vocational Secondary School, on a new dual training programme.
Although the J.H. Ziegler manufacturing site in Bábolna is simply known by locals as the sponge factory, cotton factory or Ziegler, the “alias” hides the fact that the plant also manufactures crucial components for premium automotive OEMs. Last week we interviewed Krisztián Pauschka, the factory’s CEO (pictured below).
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The Association of Hungarian Foundries, comprising 85 members, celebrated its 25th anniversary last week. The 135 foundries in operation today in Hungary produced 212,000 tonnes of casts in 2016 and employ 8,600 people directly and 13,000 people indirectly. The sector’s total revenues amounted to nearly €600m last year.
Last week, we interviewed Pál Hatala, the Association of Hungarian Foundries’ CEO on the sector’s prospects, possibilities and strong ties with the automotive industry.
Manufacturers
Ford closed the first quarter this year with exceptionally high sales in March.
Last month, 1,589 Ford vehicles were sold in Hungary, representing a 13.5 percent share in local passenger car and commercial vehicle registrations, securing first place for the marque in the Hungarian new car market.
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Service providers
The Automotive Industry Association of the Slovak Republic warns that by 2020, the Slovakian automotive industry could be in need of 14,000 employees. Is it a viable option to outbid Hungarian employers?
Budapest Airport has added new destinations, including Faro in Portugal, Hannover in Germany and several Balkan cities, such as Sarajevo, while also increasing the frequency of certain flights.
HIPA have plans to convert Szolnok into an investor-friendly town. The Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency (HIPA) will launch investment promotion, sectoral, communications and expert trainings for executives in Szolnok, a town more and more in the focus of investments.
Education
A new, highly advanced development centre is currently being built in Győr: the construction of the Centre of Cooperation Between Higher Education and Industry (FIEK) has begun, an investment for which Széchenyi István University had won a HUF 6.4bln (€20.6m) support from the Hungarian Research, Development and Innovation Agency.
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TechTogether
Hungary will host EuroSkills 2018, a competition for young European professionals, lining up the best students from different professions and fields of expertise.
The final lineup of professions that participants can enter is determined by recent tendencies and new trends. Certain shifts in the industry are demonstrated by the fact that an increasing number of countries delegate students from the field of mechatronics.
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Starting on May 25, London will host the four-day Shell Eco-marathon race. Hungary will be represented by four teams, who will compete at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park showing off the result of their year-long development work.
