Hungarian automotive industry: week 17 2020
Fotó: Bosch Pressroom
Bosch makes announcement to lay off 700 temporary workers due to falling automotive order volumes. Suzuki Esztergom and Mercedes Kecskemét resume production. Let’s recap what last week brought in Hungary’s automotive sector. Clicking on the highlighted items will open the full stories.
Bosch is terminating the contracts of 700 temporary workers by the end of April, while laying off another 130 workers by the end of the year.
Hungary’s wage subsidy system will receive further facilitation, including a simpler process for applications and looser restrictions on eligibility.
The construction of the Samsung battery plan in Göd has reached a new milestone, and the government has declared the production site an economic area, exempting the factory from paying local business tax to the town of Göd.
OEM plants are gradually resuming production across Hungary and the rest of Europe. This week will see the production lines restarting at the Mercedes-Benz plant in Kecskemét and Suzuki’s Esztergom unit.
Audi has also restarted manufacturing activities in Győr, where the previous wage agreement has been amended.
The VW plant in Bratislava has also restarted production and the parts supply of the Škoda plant in the Czech Republic is uninterrupted in spite of production activities still being halted.
Automotive manufacturing is also being resurrected in Southern Europe, a region that has been hit more severely by the Covid-19 pandemic. Seat plants are being restarted this week in Spain, while in Portugal VW is still keeping its plants shut despite nation-wide efforts of reviving the country’s economy. Fiat-Chrysler is pushing to reopen production units in Italy even without authorisation.
According to a forecast by LMC Automotive, car production volumes could be as low as 71 million units in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, 20 percent lower than in the year before.
Jaguar Land Rover is expecting to be able to resume production in Great Britain, Slovakia and Austria in mid-May.
Volkswagen is making payments to 200,000 customers for damages due to Dieselgate. There are several class action lawsuits still in progress around the world.
Demand on diesel cars has been hit hard by the scandal, which is still felt in Hungary. Experts, however, continue to recommend diesel-powered cars for long journeys.
Hungexpo Zrt. will hold Automotive Hungary International Supplier Trade Fair between October 19-22 as a joint event with Industry Days, an international trade fair of industrial and automation technologies.
Although Industry Days has been postponed to the autumn, Techtogether GTE will be held as per schedule as an online event.
