Hungarian automotive industry: week 15
Last week was all about tyres: we interviewed the CEO of Hankook and Apollo Tyres celebrated the ground-breaking of its new plant in Hungary. Portfolio held an automotive conference, while Bosch officially took over the ZF Lenksysteme plant in Hungary.
Manufacturers
Mercedes is attacking VW AG on two fronts: both the Hungarian-made Audi TT and the Porsche Panamera will have a new competitor from Mercedes.
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| New Mercedes model to compete with Hungarian-made Audi TT |
Suppliers
On Friday, Apollo Tyres celebrated the ground-breaking of its second, and most modern European tyre plant in Europe, to be built in Gyöngyöshalász, Hungary. The investment will create nearly 1,000 new jobs with mass production expected to start in 2017.
Lee Sang Il, the plant director of the Rácalmás Hankook tyre factory, gave an interview to our site and said the company provided the livelihood of some 10,000 people directly and indirectly through its suppliers.
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| Apollo Hungary lays cornerstone of new plant in Hungary |
Workers at Eger-based ZF Lenksysteme repaced their blue caps with red ones to indicate the change in ownership after the company had been recently acquired by Bosch. Bosch announced to acquire the ZF plant back in January.
Last week, the Hungarian government signed a strategic partnership agreement with Diesel particulate filter (DPF) manufacturer Ibiden.
Service providers
Early-April also saw yet another automotive conference, Portfolio Járműipar 2015, where presenters and participants shared their expectations regarding the possible changes in Hungary's automotive industry in the next five years.
The last two locomotives acquired within the scopes of a joint public procurement project by GYSEV Zrt. and MÁV-Start Zrt. were successfully delivered last week.
Last week, the Ministry for National Economy and the German-Hungarian Chamber of Industry and Commerce (DUIHK) signed a strategic partnership agreement.
Education
Last week we interviewed Sándor Bene, a member Pepp-Air team from Szeged University, about how students may benefit from student competitions. He said that not only does the job-hunting process become shorter but it completely disappears.
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| Portfolio Automotive Conference 2015 |
László Palkovics, Secretary of State for Higher Education, said that this year, the Fund for Structural Shift in Higher Education (Felsőoktatási Struktúraváltási Alap) will support 23 higher educational institutes with an aid of HUF 6.3 billion (EUR 21 million). Palkovics added that the application procedure had already been closed and based on the data available there is a significant oversubscription for dual courses.
Miskolc-based airbag manufacturer Takata Safety Systems Hungary is further consolidating its ties with the local university. There is now a permanent display indicating the company's presence at the University of Miskolc.
Economy
The output of industrial production was up 5.8 percent in February year-on-year, with seasonal and work-day adjusted indices corresponding to non-adjusted data, reported the Central Statistical Office (KSH) last week. KSH added that in February, the volume of export and import in EUR terms was up by 7.4 and 6.3 percent, respectively.
Bank analysts are expecting a dynamic increase in the output of industrial production in the rest of the year, thanks to a boom in European markets and domestic demand.
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| HUF vs Euro - week 15. Source: Portfolio |
The forint traded below 300 against the euro both at the start and the end of last week, thanks to a heavily fluctuating euro all week.
