Hungarian automotive industry: week 16 2017 edition
Mercedes, Lear join companies and organisations pushing for the withdrawal of the latest Labour Code proposal. Global suppliers such as Bridgestone, AGC, SCS report on expanding Hungarian activities. Let’s recap what the sixteenth week this year brought in Hungary’s automotive sector.
Manufacturers
The 3 millionth car, a Suzuki SX4-Cross, rolled off the production line last week at Magyar Suzuki Corporation’s Eszergom plant.
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For the first time since 2009, Suzuki are once again leading Hungarian new-car registrations after increasing their market share on the domestic passenger car market to 11.67 percent.
Suppliers
SCS Stahlschmidt will build a new production hall in Tatabánya. The German-owned manufacturer of automotive bowden cable systems announced last week to expand their Tatabánya plant with a 800sqm production hall.
Kunplast-Karsai, a company engaged in plastics processing, metalworking and tool construction, announced last week to expand their plant in Kiskunfélegyháza with a HUF 1.4 bln (€4.5m) investment.
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AGC Glass Hungary Kft. will develop a new backlite glass product family with the support of the European Union and co-financing of the European Regional Development Fund.
The Japanese glass manufacturer’s Környe plant will receive HUF 336.85m (approx. €1.01m) in subsidies for the HUF 1.06bln (€3.4m) investment, which accounts for 31.77 percent of the entire project.
Leading global automotive supplier Bosch have appointed a new head to lead their Hungarian group. Last week, we interviewed Daniel Korioth, a Peru-born diesel specialist about the workforce of the future, propulsion technologies and sustainable growth.
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Dana celebrated the ground-breaking ceremony of their new gear manufacturing plant in Győr. We took the occasion to interview Bob Pyle, president of the group’s Light Vehicle Driveline Technologies division.
Rába Járműipari Holding will be delivering welded vehicle parts for the Austrian subsidiary of Rheinmetall MAN Military Vehicles (RMMV) to create purpose-built trucks. The order for the year 2017 represents a value of more than €2.5m.
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Bridgestone’s Tatabánya plant manufactures the tyre maker’s latest product, a tyre capable of travelling 80 kilometres at a speed of 80km/h following a puncture.
A company exporting 99 percent of their products, Bridgestone Hungary presented the innovation last week within the scopes of a factory visit.
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It was also revealed at the event that the company had significantly increased their revenues last year, while the second phase of the plant’s expansion project is set to be completed by the end of the week.
Knorr-Bremse are set to present their latest research activities to young engineers at a meeting for engineers to be held on May 27.
Service providers
The construction of the new test track in Zalaegerszeg is currently being carried out by a leading firm. The first phase of construction will be completed by the end of 2017, while the test facility is set to begin operation in 2018.
Among other organisations, automotive trade unions also reject the proposal to increase the current maximum limit of employee labour time from the current 12 months to 36 months. They believe the change would favour multinationals instead of employee interests. The trade unions of Audi, Bosch and Opel are all backing the bid to withdraw the proposal.
The representative organisations of haulier firms in the Visegrad countries have accepted a joint statement against measures restricting competition taken by Western European countries, which, according to them, render their operation impossible.
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Trend
We have interviewed Dr. Csaba Nyalka, associate lawyer at DLA Piper Horváth és Társai Ügyvédi Iroda, several times about the approaches taken by the EU, Germany or Austria to address recent radical shifts in mobility trends. This time, we sat down to discuss the latest developments in Hungary.
