The fifth race in this year’s season of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship was held from August 26 – 28 at the Hungaroring circuit near Budapest. The Speedline Truck Team was on hand with its regional trading partners to cheer on local hero Norbert Kiss, but, sadly, he did not emerge victorious.
Apollo Tyres’ Enschede plant in the Netherlands has a 200 tonne per day capacity and currently operates at more than 90 per cent capacity utilisation, and to supplement output within the region the tyre maker is currently erecting a brand new factory in Hungary. During a conference call last week, Gaurav Kumar, chief financial officer at Apollo Tyres Ltd., confirmed that the company has planned a capital expenditure of €200 million for the project during the current financial year (1 April 2016 to 31 March 2017).
Pirelli will supply its P Zero Red supersoft, Yellow soft and White medium compounds to Formula One’s teams at the recently resurfaced Hungaroring. The tyre manufacturer says that the circuit “could not be any more different” following the previous race at Silverstone; the tight and twisty Hungaroring has been described as being like an oversized go-kart track, while weather conditions can range from extremely hot (a common occurrence) to rain (which was the case two years ago, as well as 2011).
The choice of Hungary, home of its European manufacturing base, as the location for this month’s ‘Ventus Experience’ media event underlines Hankook Tire’s growing focus on original equipment supply within the region. In addition to introducing the Ventus Prime³ comfort tyre, during the event Hankook Tire showed the fruits of recent investment in its factory in Rácalmás, and shared how the facility is helping it meet the requirements of European vehicle manufacturers.
Thyssenkrupp is to build a new automotive components plant in Hungary. The company will invest around 100 million euros in a new production site for engine components and steering systems. Construction of the plant in Jászfényszaru, 70 kilometres east of Budapest, will start in spring 2016, with production of electronic power-assisted steering systems and cylinder head covers with integrated camshafts planned to commence in 2018. Thyssenkrupp reports that it will create around 500 new jobs at the site in the coming years. The expansion has reportedly been prompted by “major orders from international OEMs”.
Bridgestone Corporation reported yesterday that plans to treble capacity at its Tatabánya plant in Hungary will be realised by 2020 rather than in the first half of 2017, as previously anticipated. The project to boost production capacity at the Bridgestone Tatabánya Termelö Kft facility from 6,000 to 18,000 passenger car tyres a day was announced in October 2012, and ground broke on the €267 million expansion the following summer.
In 2016 Michelin intends to develop its logistics centre in Vác, Hungary into a centre for tyre distribution within Europe, and to realise this aim has undertaken a €7 million expansion of the site. In a Hungarian-language press statement the tyre maker reports that the 30,000 square metre facility has been handed over and is ready for its new responsibilities; from 1 January 2016 it will supply tyres to 15 countries in Central and Southern Europe (Michelin names the Czech Republic, Albania, Austria and Bulgaria as four of these), and will receive tyres from all of Michelin’s European factories.
Groundwork begins this month on a new 60,000 ton per annum S-SBR plant destined to supply synthetic rubber to tyre industry customers. Construction of the new plant begins in the first quarter of next year at the MOL Petrochemicals site in Tiszaújváros, Hungary and the facility is a 51/49 per cent joint venture between Japan’s JSR Corporation and Hungary’s MOL Group. It is expected that the plant’s mechanical completion will take place within 2017.
Apollo secured 300 million euros financing for its Greenfield plant in Hungary, on which construction started in April 2015, bringing total investment to 475 million euros. The first product is expected to roll out in early 2017 and the facility will create approximately 1,000 jobs in the country. Commenting on the closure of the financing, K. Prabhakar, managing director of Apollo Tyres, Hungary said, “We thank our consortium partners who provided appropriate solutions to the specific financing needs for the project and facilitated a smooth execution.”
Some 300 million euros in financing have been secured for the factory Apollo Tyres is building in Hungray. This financing comes from a consortium of banks made up of ABN AMRO Bank NV, Magyar Export-Import Bank, Raiffeisen Bank, Standard Chartered Bank and UniCredit Bank Hungary.
Construction of Apollo Tyres’ first European Greenfield plant in Gyöngyöshalász, Hungary, officially began on 10 April 2015, with a foundation stone laying ceremony. The international tyre manufacturer’s facility will start production in early 2017. The facility will produce both, Apollo and Vredestein branded tyres and will cater to the entire European market.
Apollo Tyres has been named as a Hungary ‘Investor of the Year 2014’ under the ‘Largest Greenfield Investment of the Year’ category. The award is instituted by the Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency (HIPA) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The winners were announced during its third annual award ceremony held in Pesti Vigado in Budapest.
Attending the Geneva Motor Show is about original equipment (OE) positioning as much as it is about brand building. So when ambitious and fast-growing firms such as Apollo Tyres continue to make significant investments in such an exhibition it provokes questions about the company’s OE strategy. Geneva may ostensibly be about the latest and best cars, but our conversation with Apollo executives quickly shifted to the commercial vehicle tyres sector. Tyres & Accessories spoke with Apollo Tyres vice-chairman and managing director Neeraj Kanwar as well as chief business officer Sunam Sarkar in order to find out more about this as well as to consider the company’s future retreading options.
Michelin has announced plans to expand production at its Nyíregyháza (northeastern Hungary) production plant as part of a 40 million investment project. According to the local Budapest Business Journal, the investment is expected to raise the plant’s daily output to 6,900 tyres by the end of 2017 and raise headcount by 100. Hungarian news agency […]
Apollo Tyres has announced details of its recruitment drive in Hungary for its soon to be built Greenfield facility at Gyöngyöshalász. Apollo plans to appoint 100 technicians and fresh graduate engineers soon, with a second drive to recruit a further 150 people in the second half of 2015. Although production will only start at the beginning of 2017, the first batch of employees for the Hungarian factory will be contracted in the beginning of July 2015. Besides technicians and engineers, the company is also seeking applications for various functional areas including administration and logistics.
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