Hungarian automotive industry: week 7 2022

Rehau, a market-leading, German-owned family business, has established a manufacturing plant in Hungary for the production of automotive serial production parts, and pledged to create 350 new jobs in two years.

Not only is the 70th anniversary a key highlight for the Hajdu Group, but the Hungarian company is also celebrating a successful fiscal 2021, where it registered a total revenue of nearly HUF 22 billion despite a global increase of base material and energy prices and workforce shortage.

The Baolong Group, one of China’s largest automotive suppliers, has announced to carry out a greenfield investment in Szigetszentmiklós with a total value of HUF 5 billion, creating 35 jobs in the process.

Szombathely-base supplier Schaeffler and the University of Pannonia are consolidating their partnership. Additionally to financial accounting, Schaeffler Savaria Kft. now offers students participating in the university’s dual education programme to complete their practical training at the company in mechatronic engineering and electrical engineering as well.

At Audi Hungaria’s Győr-based Project and Education Centre a new robot cell has entered operation to support the development of various engine manufacturing competences in the company’s vocational and adult training programmes. The facility’s portfolio has been expanded with new trainings in security systems, control engineering and supplier competences.

In 2021, Bosch spent a total of €700 million on investments into electromobility and fuel cell technologies, with a significant sum ending up at the supplier’s Hungarian locations. In addition to comprehensive R&D activities, the group also manufactures drive systems and parts used in e-mobility application at its plants in Miskolc, Maklár and Hatvan.

The Hungarian Tire Association made an interview with Tamás Bakonyi, managing director of Apollo Vredestein, responsible for the commerce and distribution of the Apollo and Vredestein tyre brands in the region, who spoke about brand popularity, developments in the tyre market and all-season tyres.

The Commission of the European Union is planning to allocate €40 billion to reduce Europe’s dependency on other regions in the production of semiconductors. Their target is to prevent Europe lagging behind in chip manufacturing.

As a result of the European Union’s carbon plan, some 500,000 jobs could be terminated or transformed in the region. Bosch is planning a €2 billion investment to prepare its workforce for electrification. The majority of the staff will need to be retrained for electromobility-related changes.

Bottlenecks in global trade are more likely a result of a sharp increase in demand than disruptions in the supply chain. In the next three-four months, the pressure of inflation will ease, but no normalization in the supply chain is expected until 2023 due to the excessive load on production capacities.