Hungarian automotive industry: week 7 2018 edition
Former Hungarian Opel plant director with decades of experience in the motor industry to head GM’s Vienna-based engine and transmission unit. Let’s recap what the seventh week this year brought in Hungary’s automotive sector.
Suppliers
The Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency and the Budapest Business Journal held a joint gala last week to hand out awards to automotive experts. The awardees included VW Regional Office Eastern Europe boss Frank Müller and Marc de Bastos Eckstein, head of Thyssenkrupp’s Hungarian operation.
Tiszaalpár-based Matic Kft. has expanded its production area and capacity with a HUF 386 million investment. The company is engaged in metal sheet processing.
A HUF 1.4 billion investment has been announced to launch at Nyírbátor Business Park.
SMEs and large businesses alike can apply for a subsidy for trainings related to Industry 4.0 from a total budget allocation of HUF 31.5 billion.
Interviews
Tamás Solt has been appointed as chief-executive of Federal-Mogul Powertrain’s Kunsziget plant. Solt has decades of experience in the automotive field, and has worked in various positions at General Motors. In an interview he told us what made him switch.
In a new series of articles we introduce managers who were successful already at a young age. Viktor Agárdi had aspired to be an actor since a very young age, and after a series of failures he found what he was meant to do. Albeit only 35, he is currently CEO at Fath’s Hungarian subsidiary.
Car sales
21 Ikarus buses out of the 41 vehicles ordered back in October last year are already in operation. The wait is also getting shorter for electric buses.
Hungarians are afraid of investing in electric cars: only a quarter of the country's motorists are open to the idea of purchasing an EV.
Education
Researchers at the Automotive Research Centre (JKK) of Széchenyi István University are developing previously unseen procedures, assembling prototypes and patent innovative solutions. Last week, we had a peek into the work at JKK.
Labour market
Juraj Sinay, the chairman of the Slovak Automotive Industry Association, said last week that labour shortage is so high in the country that they are forced to fill positions with foreign employees. Does this mean that businesses near the border could soon be in trouble? According to the CEO of a Győr-based manufacturer of purpose-built machinery, the situation is not so dire.
The Slovak government has approved an amendment to the Labour Code introducing a wage supplement for weekend work and raising existing supplements on night shifts and work during bank holidays.
Man vs. robot
Analysts at PwC investigated the effects of automation based on sex, age and qualification. In their study they analysed work-related tasks and skills on the basis of 200,000 workplaces from 29 countries. Their study highlights the positions that can soon be taken over by robots.
Students at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics have showcased their own developments for the ninth time this year at the university’s race of self-controlled robot vehicles.
The vehicles have to tackle speed and obstacle courses without human interaction. The teams receive remote-controlled toy cars, which they have to convert into autonomous robots.
