“The new, five-billion-forint (EUR 15.3 million) investment by Indian-owned automotive industry supplier the Samvardhana Motherson Group (SMG) is creating one hundred new jobs”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó announced on Wednesday in Túrkeve at the official inauguration of the new plant”

The Government has provided 1 billion 480 thousand forints in non-returnable funding towards the investment project realised by the SMG Group’s division specialising in moulded plastic parts, MATE (Motherson Automotive Technologies and Engineering), Mr. Szijjártó told the press. The company has established another 12 thousand square metre production hall next to the Group’s Samvardhana Motherson Reflectec (SMR) plant, which opened in Túrkeve in October 2016, further reinforcing the Group’s presence in Hungary.

“The Samvardhana Group has 270 interests in 41 countries worldwide. Based on its favourable experiences in Hungary to date, the company group decided that the best place for its bumper manufacturing unit is Hungary”, he added, stressing: “One of the world’s largest automotive industry suppliers has once again regarded Hungary as its ideal investment location”.

The Minister spoke about the fact that the Samvardhana Group already employs over 3500 people in Hungary and has a production area of 105 thousand square metres. It supplies Porsche, Audi, Volkswagen, Suzuki, Honda, Mercedes and Peugeot, amongst others. “The Hungarian investments realised by the Samvardhana Group have contributed to enabling Hungary to be one of the bastions of the European automotive industry today”, he stated.

“BMW decided in favour of Hungary, Audi brought the serial production of its electric motors here, and Jaguar Land Rover decided on the establishment of an engineering development centre”, he pointed out. “These investments would not have come about without the automotive industry having a stable, extensive and continuously growing supplier network in Hungary”, he said.

“The Samvardhana Group is bringing state-of-the-art technology to Hungary, and by doing so is helping the Hungarian economy to also move forward into a new era in which what matters is no longer the number of jobs, but the level of technology and added value represented by those jobs”, he declared.

“The investments realised by the company group have also contributed to enabling the Hungarian automotive industry to generate a production value of 8500 billion forints (EUR 26bn) last year, breaking all previous records. The performance of the automotive industry increased by over 10 percent during the first quarter of this year, and we do not have long to wait before the Hungarian automotive industry can boast an annual production value of 10 trillion forints”, Mr. Szijjártó said. He also pointed out that 91 percent of the products and services produced by the Hungarian automotive industry are exported.

“There are now 173 thousand people working in the sector, which provides 29 percent of total processing industry output”, the Minister said. He mentioned that India is one of Hungary’s important Asian partners, with trade flow between the two countries exceeding 7000 million dollars last year, a year-on-year increase of 11 percent. “Trade flow was successfully increased by a further 17 percent in the first quarter of this year”, he stated. “An investment related to the company group has been announced ever year since 2015”, he pointed out.

Mr. Szijjártó spoke about the fact that large eastern companies are acquiring an increasing market share on the transatlantic markets. “Hungary’s government launched its Eastern Opening Policy in 2010. Its success is indicated by the fact that more and more eastern companies are choosing Hungary as their investment destination, and Indian companies are also present with increasing weight”, the Minister said.

“The Government has introduced important economic policy measures to facilitate this. Hungary has the lowest level of taxes in Europe, with corporation tax in single digits and a flat rate of personal income tax at 15 percent. The education system has been restructured and the investment funding system has been expanded. Hungary is one of the winners of the new global economic era”, Mr. Szijjártó said.

Owner of the Motherson Group Vivek Chaand Sehgal, SMR’s vice-president for Germany and Eastern Europe Pál-Levente Tibori, and the region’s Member of Parliament Sándor Kovács (Fidesz) all gave speeches at the event.

According to the press materials distributed at the opening ceremony, the Indian-owned Samvardhana Motherson Group is one of the world’s 23 largest global automotive industry suppliers, and its portfolio covers every segment of vehicle production. SMG was founded in 1975, and today it is one of the world’s most dynamically developing manufacturers of automotive industry parts. Its business portfolio includes a wide range of products: driver’s cabs, bumper coverings, rear view mirrors, camera systems, lighting systems, internal and external carpeting, cable systems, air conditioning systems and cabs for off-road vehicles.

In addition, it also manufactures cooling systems, machined and sintered metal parts, elastomer components, cutting tools, metal coatings and injection moulding tools, as well as providing full IT and design engineering services within various fields of the industry. SMG is one of the world’s 23 largest automotive industry suppliers and employs over 135 thousand people. In the 2017-2018 business year, the company group generated over 11.5 billion dollars in turnover on a pro forma basis. In addition to manufacturing automotive industry plastic parts, MATE (Motherson Automotive Technologies and Engineering) also serves non-automotive industry demand and clients as part of SMG.

SMR, which is also part of the company group, employs over 2650 permanent staff and over 1000 temporary employees at its plants in Mosonszolnok, Mosonmagyaróvár, Hegyeshalom, Kecskemét and Túrkeve.

(MTI)