Hungarian automotive industry: week 43

Manufacturers

In early-December, 500 employees of Audi Hungaria will be temporarily transferred to the the group’s Bratislava-based VW plant. The temporary placement will expire in 2018, the proposed start of serial production for the new Audi Q3.

The compact version of the Kravtex-Kühne group’s newly developed, 10m version of the Credo Econell was unveiled last week. This is the first locally built bus that was designed to comply with the government’s national bus manufacturing strategy, adopted earlier this summer. The testing of the Credo Econell 10 began at the end of October.

Toyota has announced to recall 1.5 million cars globally, including 16,000 cars sold in Hungary, for faulty airbags. According to the company’s communication, airbag supplier Takata indicated the potential fault of driver and passenger side airbags.

Volkswagen has begun the construction of a new logistics centre near its Bratislava plant. The new 125,000 sqm logistics base, to be handed over next year and fully operational in late-2017, is being built with a €150 million investment.

Suppliers

Digital sophistication is bringing more and more intelligent products. In the future, the elements of a system will be capable of communicating with one another, while at the same time also manage and control themselves. These are the most important elements of industrial digitisation, supporting the production process with more advanced functions – starting from classical aspects, such as productivity, quality and more extensive individualisation. Peter Post, director of Corporate Research and Technology at Festo AG & Co., said this in an interview published last week on our site.

According to Festo, digitalisation is transforming products

Continental is placing more emphasis on increasing the proportion of women among its employees. The company has plans to increase the proportion of women in top management to 16 percent by 2020. In Hungary, this goal has already been achieved.

A shift can be observed in the world of raw materials from steel towards lighter, multi-purpose materials, the commercial director of Karsai Műanyagtechnikai Holding, said in an interview with autopro.hu last week.

Service providers

Every second company reports it difficult to find employees, it was revealed in the latest survey by ManpowerGroup, conducted in 42 countries. In Hungary, 57 percent of participants reportedly find it difficult to find adequate labour force, 32 percent said there was no applicants for open positions, while 31 percent feel a shortage in well trained applicants.

Skills shortage continues to be a serious issue in Hungary

The Hungarian Trade Union Federation (MSZASZSZ) is committed to its plans to raise the minimum wage in Hungary. MSZASZSZ is persistent in its demands to increase the minimum wage by 10 percent and the guaranteed minimum pay by 16 percent. According to their argument, there is no other way for the net sum of the subsistence level income to be sufficient to reach the poverty line by 2018.

MET Magyarország Zrt.’s Innovation and Talent Award has been won by robot manufacturer Kuka. The award was handed out at Figyelő’s TOP200 gala event, which traditionally lines up Hungary’s 200 best companies.

Kuka wins award at Figyelő TOP200 gala

Last week the Best Workplace award was also handed out. Jungheinrich Hungária Kft. was chosen as the best workplace in the category of companies with a headcount of 50–250.

Education

The best vehicle and mechanical engineer students were awarded last week in Győr. Each of the best-performing students from Széchenyi István University of Győr received one of nine different types of education grants at an event held by the Universitas-Győr Foundation. The 500 grants handed out at the event total HUF 7.9 million (€25,500) in value.

Széchenyi István University awards its best engineer students

Trend

Lufthansa Technik’s new aircraft engineering centre was handed over in Budapest last week, opening new positions for 50 highly qualified engineers.