Schaeffler invests €70m to build new plant in Hungary

German automotive components manufacturer Schaeffler is to build a new facility in the western Hungarian city of Szombathely. The company is to invest HUF 23.5-billion (€70-million) in the project, which will create 150 new jobs.

“Within the framework of its new strategy, Schaeffler, which is the world’s 23rd largest automotive industry supplier, is continuously increasing its production capacity with relation to the components of electric vehicles”, said the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó.

“The company has decided to realise its new investment project, which is required for the transition to the new automotive industry era, in Hungary, and the new production facility will also be involved in research and development,” he continued.

The new plant will be built within the framework of a greenfield investment project on a 30-hectare plot of land, just three kilometres away from its existing plant. Construction is scheduled to start in February 2020 and will be finished by the end of the year.

Szijjártó said that a new industrial revolution was underway, the speed of which is being set by the automotive industry due to the shift from the combustion engine to lithium battery-powered electric vehicles.

“The newly announced investment project is proof of the fact that the changes are occurring here and now, and are having tangible effects on plants and workplaces”, he said.

The Hungarian automotive industry employs around 175,000 people in the central European country, with its overall production value increasing by 14% over the first months of 2019 to more than HUF 7,200-billion (€21.4-billion). The sector has an export ratio of 90.8%, itself an indicator of its competitiveness on the global market.

“The newly announced investment project will further increase the export performance of the Hungarian economy, will reinforce Hungary’s role as a bastion of the new automotive industry era, will provide a living for a further 150 families, and will increase demand for the products and services of Hungarian small and medium-sized enterprises”, Szijjártó said, adding that it will also increase economic relations with Germany, which is the largest foreign investor in Hungary.

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