Hungarian automotive industry: week 30 2018 edition
Heat, more rest time and cold drinking water for workers but no stopping in Hungary´s auto sector. Let’s recap what the 31st week of the year brought in Hungary’s automotive industry.
Spanish-owned car parts manufacturer F. Segura Hungária is expanding its Szolnok-based site with a HUF 4 billion investment.
"One of the cornerstones of the MOL Group’s 2030 strategy is that we will place more emphasis on the development of the petrochemicals division, engaged in the production of chemical products from refined hydrocarbons.
"Our aim is to become the region’s leading chemical company, and further increase the value chain integration of refinery and processing through our investments," Miklós Egri, head of strategic projects at MOL’s consumer services division, said last week in an interview.
Crazy pace in China: greenfield investment to prototyping in just 6-12 months.
"It seems there is a Chinese billionaire whose main focus is the profitability of electric mobility. He buys up experts and plants, closes the door and expects to see a car rolling off the production line in half a year. Production is either outsourced to a Chinese OEM or they build their own plant.
"Now there is enough capital in China to utilise European technologies over Chinese ones. German and other foreign suppliers are also further laden by the time pressure," Károly Szalai, founder of software developer Sinneo Smart Technologies, said in an interview reflecting on Asian industrial culture.
Emerson has acquired Aventics. The company also operates a production unit in Eger, Hungary.
During heat waves, employers are obliged to provide drinking water to their workers and introduce regular rest periods.
Ministry for National Economy Mihály Varga talked about the deficiencies of Hungary’s economy with surprising honesty during a presentation held at Tusványos Free University.
"There are not enough Hungarian products, we don’t speak languages and small business don’t spend enough on trainings," the minister said.
It is inherent to labour shortage that companies find employment only in a wide catchment area. However, beyond a certain distance commuting becomes impossible. Zalaegerszeg followed Veszprém in announcing the construction of a new workers’ compound. Flex has already announced its willingness to find accommodation for its workers.
100,000 people could be transferred from the public sector to the private sector.
Threshold scores for higher education applications have been announced, 280 points are enough to get into technical universities.
Although BME FRT prepared two vehicles for this year’s Formula Student series, none of them were able to compete at 100 percent at the season’s first event. In one car’s case it was a few minutes that made all the difference.
I expect an engineer to pick up programming as a base skill in a few years’ time, be it PLC or any other widely used programming language, István Molnár, head of engineering at the Continental Digital Factory, said in an interview.
Audi Hungaria has launched the serial production of electric motors.
"Today it is difficult to take those new cars seriously that don’t offer driver assist functions. In the medium and luxury segments there is more and more demand on active driver-assist and automatic emergency brake systems," Gergely Kanalas, PR manager at Citroën Hungary, said last week in an interview.
