Hungarian automotive industry: week 22 2017 edition
Samsung hand over automotive battery plant, Bosch report on growing Hungarian revenues, Audi sign strategic agreement with Szeged University. Let´s recap what the 22nd week this year brought in Hungary´s automotive industry.
Suppliers
Samsung SDI handed over a new automotive battery plant in Göd. Samsung SDI CEO Jun Young-Hyun said the market of electric cars is ahead of an explosive growth, necessitating demand on batteries to be produced at the Hungarian plant.
László Parragh, chairman of the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that the automotive industry is the second largest industrial sector in Hungary after the electronics sector, with investments expected to grow by 10-12 percent in 2017.
Bosch held their annual press conference last week, where it was announced that the group had registered a 20 percent increase in their Hungarian revenues (HUF 1,149bln), an achievement they will be aiming to replicate next year. Innovation continues to be in the focus at Hungarian Bosch sites.
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The group is committed to supporting innovation with significant funding. In 2016, innovation funds saw a 27 percent growth, increasing from HUF 37bln to HUF 47bln. Last year, 2,000 people were hired by Bosch Hungary, boosting the number of people on their payroll to 14,200.
Daniel Korioth, head of Bosch Hungary since November 2016, said he had never seen growth inside the company at such a scale since his arrival at the company in 1989.
It was also said at the event that the company’s test track, currently under construction, will not be competing with the new automotive test site in Zalaegerszeg.
Automotive parts manufacturer Rosenberger Magyarország Kft.’s new, HUF 3.2bln production hall is expected to be finished by the end of August, with production scheduled to start in the autumn.
Papp Fransico, the company’s Hungarian-born CEO, said the investment has a reached completion rate of 55 percent. The 8,000sqm production hall is structurally complete, and the equipment is currently being installed.
The Knorr Bremse R&D Centre in Budapest showcased the company’s latest developments in autonomous technology last week at a programme called Smart Trucks – Smart Engineers.
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| Knorr-Bremse R&D centre showases autonomous technologies |
Service providers
Budaörs-based Ge-Co Hungary Kft., a company engaged in the sales of CNC machining centres and turning machinery of market-leading manufacturers since 1998, will celebrate their 20th anniversary next year. Last week, we interviewed the company’s sales manager about the demands of the automotive sector.
“Previously it was much easier to find employees. Today it is different, which is why there is a direct demand on automation. Efforts are being made in this direction, more and more processes need to be automated. At the same time, we need to remember that not everyone can be replaced with a robot, as these robots have to be operated and programmed.
“We need more IT professionals and programmers, with education paying special attention to this field. We will need smart, sensible people in the future,” Thomas Rieth of Ge-Co Hungary told our site.
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| Thomas Rieth of Ge-Co Hungary Kft. |
The Hungarian Vehicle Importers’ Association (MGE) released their monthly report last week. They believe private buyers are making their return to the market. Registrations in May exceeded the previous year’s results by 30 percent, while cumulative sales in the first four months show a 21 percent increase year-on-year.
Education
Audi Hungaria Zrt. and the University of Szeged signed a strategic agreement on the occasion of the university’s innovation day, held last week.
The agreement aims to foster mutual support between the company and the university in their innovation and educational activities, and to launch joint R&D projects. Audi will announce scientific student and thesis topics at the university, and the company’s professionals will join as supervisors and participate in doctoral programmes.
The Budapest University of Technology and Economics held a ceremony for honorary awards and prizes, conferment of doctoral degrees and handed out Industrial Professor and Neumann János Professor titles. In the automotive field, the Senate awarded Dr. Sándor Simonyi, CEO of Salgótarján-based Trigon Electronica Kft.
TechTogether
Three Hungarian teams went to London to participate in the 2017 Shell Eco-marathon, an efficiency race that lined up 168 teams to compete and see who can travel the largest distance using a 1 litre of fuel of 1 kWh of electrical energy.
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SZEnergy Team lined up on the grid at Shell Eco-marathon Europe for the 10th time this year. The team from Győr finished in an astonishing fourth position, barely missing out on a podium finish. In a close finish the team managed to beat their previous record from 2016.
Trend
The Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) Laser Research Centre in Szeged was handed over last week. The facility stands out from other international high-intensity laser centres with its ability to create the most and shortest laser impulses per second, thus allowing researchers to study intramolecular processes.
In addition, a scientific industrial park will be built near the laser research centre under the name ELI Science Park, which will house an incubator facility as a first step of development.
