“German company Thyssenkrupp will be constructing a camshaft production plant in Pécs with the support of the Government and with an investment of 17.4 billion forints (EUR 53.7 million)”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó announced at a press conference in Budapest on Friday.
Mr. Szijjártó said the Government is supporting the projects, which will create 200 new jobs, with 5.57 billion forints (EUR 17.2 million) in funding. “The expansion of Thyssenkrupp’s local activities also confirms that Hungary can also be a bastion of manufacturing in the new automotive industry era”, he added. The Minister said he expects the sector to break yet another production record this year in view of the fact the production value of the Hungarian automotive industry already reached 3225 billion forints (EUR 9.95 billion) in the first four months of this year, realising a year-on-year increase of 11 percent. Since 2010, the annual production value of the Hungarian automotive industry has jumped to 8.5 trillion forints (EUR 26.3 billion) from 4 trillion forints (EUR 12.3 billion), and according to the Minister further progress has brought an automotive production value in excess of 10 thousand million forints (EUR 30.9 billion) within reach in Hungary. “In addition, the latest investment projects are producing a jump in quality, not just quantity, in view of the fact that their ratio of research & development and technology has been increasing continuously from year to year”, Mr. Szijjártó emphasised.
The Minister is also expecting a record year from German-Hungarian economic relations in view of the fact that trade flow between the two states already achieved an outstanding value of over 14 billion euros in the first three months of this year. “The strength of relations between Germany and the other countries of Central Europe is indicated by the fact that the 300 billion euros in annual trade flow realised with the countries of the Visegrád Group (V4) exceeds the value of German-French trade flow by 74 percent”, he pointed out.
The Mayor of Pécs, which will be home to Thyssenkrupp’s new plant, called the arrival of a global automotive industry company a special milestone in the city’s history. Péter Hoppál said he trusts that the success of the company will lead to an increase in investment in Pécs. “In addition to the city’s machine industry traditions, the still available South Transdanubian workforce, Pécs’s university and the local opportunities for dual training could also contribute to this”, he added.
At the press conference, Managing Director of Thyssenkrupp Marc de Bastos Echstein said the company is present in 80 countries worldwide, and based on its productivity and the number of people it employs, if is one of the largest manufacturing companies in the world. “The new plant in Pécs will be the automotive industry company’s fifth facility in Hungary and will be using state-of-the-art Industry 4.0 solutions while creating jobs that generate high added value”, he added. The company director said the greenfield investment project would already begin this year, with production commencing in mid-2020.
Thyssenkrupp Components Technology’s Budapest subsidiary has been dealing with the development of electronic steering systems for cars since 1999, as the company group’s only electronics and software centre. In Győr, Thyssenkrupp Automotive Systems’ chassis specialists have been manufacturing complete car chassis for Audi Hungária Motor Ltd. since 2013. In 2016, the production of steering transmission units and cylinder head-integrated camshafts began in two plants in Jászfényszaru, and a coil spring and stabilizer plant has been operating in Debrecen since 2018. According to publicly available company data, Thyssenkrupp Components Technology Hungary realised over 63 billion forints (EUR 194.5 million) in new turnover in the business year ending last September, and posted over 522 million forints (EUR 1.61 million) in after tax profits.
(MTI)
