Hungarian automotive industry: week 9

Manufacturers

The Geneva Motor Show kicked off last week, showcasing a number of exciting new models and presenting the Car of the Year 2016 award. This year's choice was the Opel Astra, powered by an engine manufactured in Szentgotthárd, Hungary.

Opel Astra Car of the Year 2016

While car lovers were focusing on Switzerland, domestic automotive professionals had their attention on Ingolstadt, where Audi held its annual press conference last week, sending out an optimistic message both in terms of the car maker's global activities and its Hungary-based operation.

The Győr plant manufactured over 2 million engines in 2015, one fifth of the entire engine output of the Volkswagen Group.

Audi Hungaria set a new record in engine manufacturing last year

Last week, we tested the impressive all-wheel drive BMW i330, powered by a four-cylinder engine, on the snowy mountains roads of East-Transylvania.

BMW i330

Suppliers

Companies are developing and implementing new HR strategies as a response to the changing labour market. This was the main topic of our interview with Katalin Csontos-Hoffer, HR director of Busch-Hungária.

László Kishonti, a Hungarian developer of chip components for smart cars, told about the challenges of the future of motoring.

Last week, Bridgestone was chosen the Tyre Manufacturer of the Year. We interviewed Ákos Barcsik, head engineer of the manufacturer's Hungarian branch, on the intelligent solutions of the future and the challenges of tyre manufacturing.

Ákos Barcsik, head engineer at Bridgestone Hungary

EPCOS handed out the Employer of the Year awards last week in Szombathely. The company acknowledged its best-performing employees, altogether 138 workers, for the 13th time at a ceremony held at AGORA MSH in Szombathely.

Due to a decline in orders from Russia, Nagykanizsa-based OT-Industries-DKG Gépgyártó announced last week to lay off 170 of its employees.

Epcos hands out awards for best-performing employees

Service providers

In a series of interviews we are striving to shed light on employment. Last week we sat down with András Háry, director of Technology Centre of Zalaegerszeg on the occasion of a local TechTogether Junior event.

Information technology is becoming increasingly important in the field of automotive manufacturing. We interviewed Tamás Laufer, the chairman of ICT Association of Hungary, on the ever increasing role of information technology and telecommunications in the automotive industry.

Are robots and humans capable of working together? According to Marietta Malaczkó, the marketing and PR expert at Kuka Robotics Hungária, the answer is yes.

Graduates of Kecskemét College's dual training programme

Weberer's International Holding has established a subsidiary in Germany. Waberer´s Deutschland GmbH is headquartered in Hurthban, near Cologne.

Education

The first batch of students in Kecskemét College's dual educational programme has graduated, making the university the first Hungarian higher educational institute to grant such highly practice-oriented degrees in the country.

Economy

In an analysis published last week we examined in which areas of automotive manufacturing Slovakia is the most likely to attract employees from Hungary.

Our comparison shows that production line workers could gain the most from relocating to our Northern neighbours.

Slovakia to attract production line workers from Hungary

The market of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in Hungary further increased in 2015. The number of transactions saw a 27 percent growth, while the estimated size of the domestic M&A market increased by 2 percent from 2014, according to a report published last week.