Hungarian automotive industry: week 2 2018 edition
Japanese battery producer to build new plant in Hungary, interviews with industry professionals, more and more bids to be made available for automotive businesses. Let’s recap what the second week of 2018 brought in Hungary’s automotive industry.
Investment
Another significant Asia-based lithium-ion battery manufacturer has chosen Hungary as the location of its latest investment: GS Yuasa has announced to build its first European production site in Miskolc. In its first phase, the nearly €29 million investment will create 51 jobs. Construction works are set to begin this February. The plant in Miskolc will be the company’s first manufacturing location of lithium-ion batteries outside Japan.
Jármű Zrt. is building a new production unit at its Tiszavasvári site. The development project will expand the current production area by 1,300 square metres and install an automated anodising production line. The company manufactures interior assemblies for passenger coaches, including nearly all components apart from seats. These include doors and windows complete with advanced control mechanism, luggage casings, information displays, glass partition walls, claddings, handles, air ducts, air vents and various clamps and collectors.
The Mór-based seat factory was established nearly two decades ago. They began operation under the Hammerstein name, while Adient was founded as a new brand in 2016. The construction of a new, 12,000sqm production hall was necessitated by new order volumes from BMW and Mercedes. Last week we interviewed the management of Adient.
They have plans to develop several key industrial units: Felsőtárkány, Törökszentmiklós and Hódmezővásárhely are all among the sites to receive investments in the future.
Suppliers
According to István Gödri, the head of Aventics, every day we must take an extra step to be ahead of our competitors. In his recap of the previous year he said the company began its digitalisation phase back in 2008. They work with 30,000 different parts from 600 suppliers, which they make into 20,000 products, with 92 percent of their orders comprising 50 or fewer units.
300 companies, mostly automotive suppliers, could be the potential winners of a development programme for medium-sized business announced last week at Győr-based Borsodi Műhely Kft. The project’s aim is to keep fast-developing businesses on a stable growth course.
A HUF 5 billion project was announced last week to promote the creation and protection of workplaces at SMEs, a programme with the potential to add and secure thousands of new jobs in the future.
Last week we interviewed Péter Vityi, the ICT Association of Hungary. According to Mr. Vity, the gap between digital technology and traditional tools is so huge that the introduction of Industry 4.0 solutions at a company can turn company responsibilities completely upside down. This is why different industrial scenarios require tailored solutions. And of course, in order to fully utilise the advantages of Industry 4.0, a change of perspective is required from all employees, shop workers and management alike.
Employment
László Parragh, chairman of the Hungarian Chamber of Industry and Commerce, said last week that Hungarian labourers would already return to Hungary for 60 percent of Western European wages.
Combining their wages and education grants students in the dual education scheme in Székesfehérvár can receive up to HUF 200,000 a month.
More than 100 educational institutions will be present at the 18th International Educatio Trade Fair. The event, to be held between January 18th and 20th at the G hall of Hungexpo, will be free to attend. The key themes of Educatio are IT and programming.
Student vehicle-building teams operate just like automotive SMEs. They are challenged by costs, production times and employee shortage. Last week, we interviewed SZEngine team captain Szabolcs Györkös to tell us about their coping strategies. The stakes are high: if communication fails, they can lose their supporters.
