A EUR35 million production facility for springs and stabilisers is to be built in Debrecen, Hungary, following an announcement by Hungary's Foreign Minister, Peter Szijartó and Matthais Koll, CEO of German steelmaker ThyssenKrupp's springs and stabilisers business unit.
Construction will start on the 20,000 square metre site in the spring and it is estimated that the plant, when up and running in 2018, will produce over six million coil springs and stabilisers per year in addition to creating around 250 jobs on-site by 2020.
“In recent years Hungary has developed into an important European location for the international auto industry," said Karsten Kroos, CEO of thyssenkrupp's components technology business. "In the last four years alone, car production in Hungary has more than doubled to over 500,000 light vehicles produced there in 2016. The expansion of our production capacities in Hungary is a continuation of the profitable growth strategy being pursued by our components business together with our customers.”
Early last year thyssenkrupp began building a new facility for engine and chassis components near Budapest. Production of electric power-assisted steering systems and cylinder head covers with integrated camshafts is planned to commence in 2018. The company is investing around 100 million euros in this new facility. Thyssenkrupp also opened a front and rear axle assembly plant for Audi in Győr in 2013.
But the growing importance of Hungary as a location for thyssenkrupp is not limited to production. The company already operates a software development centre for steering technology in Budapest, where some 500 software engineers work to develop solutions for electro-mechanical steering systems for the international automotive industry. Based on this steering technology the centre is also working on steer-by-wire solutions and driver assist technology as a precursor to autonomous driving.