Hungarian automotive industry: week 44
Automotive Hungary, Techtogether held. Mercedes-Benz Kecskemét appoints a new CEO, Graboplast develops new automotive product. Let´s recap what happened in week 44 in Hungary´s auto industry.
Manufacturers
Effective 1 January 2016, the new CEO of Mercedes-Benz Manufacturing Kft. will be Christian Wolff.
His predecessor, Thomas Geier has been chief executive at the Mercedes Kecskemét plant since May 2014, will be transferred to the car maker's Sindelfingen plant, where he will oversee the new E-Class assembly unit to be launched in 2016.
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| Christian Wolff to replace Thomas Geier at Mercedes-Benz Kecskemét |
Thomas Sigi, Audi AG board of management member responsible for human resources, said in an interview last week that Audi is not planning to lay off any of its staff and will continue to hire employees.
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| Audi to continue hiring in 2016 |
The number of visitors to Audi's Győr-based plant reached 50,000 last week. The 50,000th visitor was a 13 year-old boy about to start his studies in secondary education. Audi Hungaria welcomes 15,000 visitors every year.
Suppliers
The Hungarian government has signed a strategic partnership agreement with the Hungarian subsidiary of SMR Group, the world´s largest manufacturer of rearview mirrors for automotive applications.
Graboplast has developed an underbody protection solution for automotive manufacturers. The company is capable of producing 4,000 tons of the product at its Győr-based operation.
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| SMR Hungary signs partnership agreement with Hungarian government |
Service providers, Automotive Hungary
The 2015 edition of the Great Book of the Hungarian Automotive Industry was published last week. The book was presented by the publisher and operator of autopro.hu at professional trade fair Automotive Hungary.
BMW started selling the 'i' models in Hungary in November 2014. In the last 11 months, the car maker sold 50 'i' cars to Hungarian customers.
Győr is set to become an automotive "great power": an EU programme with the aim to increase the town's region's competitiveness was completed last week. Széchenyi István University has spent nearly HUF 641 million on the project.
Education
BME Formula Racing Team from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics has won TechTogether, a competition held by autopro.hu last week at Automotive Hungary for racing teams from local universities.
Óbuda University finished in second, followed by Arrabona Racing Team from Széchenyi István University of Győr in third. Browse our gallery from the event.
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| BME FRT wins TechTogether 2015 ahead of Óbuda University and Arrabona Racing Team |
University campus to be built in Kecskemét. Zoltán Balog, Minister of Human Capacities, and György Matolcsy, president of the National Bank of Hungary, laid the foundation stone for a 30,000 m2, 6-building complex that will be capable of housing 1,500 students.
The new facility will be built as part of the integration of Kecskemét College and the College of Szolnok.
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| Zoltán Balog, Minister of Human Capacities, and György Matolcsy, president of the National Bank of Hungary, at the ground-breaking ceremony of a new 6-building university complex in Kecskemét to be built with the integration of Kecskemét College and the College of Szolnok |
It was announced last week that Siemens is donating advanced automation, powetrain systems and development software worth HUF millions to research laboratories of four Hungarian universities.
Economy
In September, industrial producer prices went down by 1.5 percent year-on-year. Domestic prices decreased by 3.7 percent, while export prices dropped by 0.2 percent, according to a report published by the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH) last week.
