The German group Continental AG will open a plant worth 10 million euros in Timisoara this autumn, where it is to produce joints for car air conditioning systems.
Continental will thus find itself with four plants and investments worth almost 140 million euros in Romania, after it finalised another investment last week, standing at 20 million euros, in Sibiu.
The Timisoara plant, the third one to be located in this city, is being constructed by ContiTech Fluid, part of Continental's ContiTech unit, and will create about 130 new jobs, a figure that could subsequently go up to 400. Its construction was initiated in the second half of last year and the series production will be launched this autumn, when the unit becomes operational.
According to Gerald Lerch, general manager of ContiTech Holding GmbH, Timisoara was chosen as the location of the new plant due to the city's well trained and capable labour force.
This is not the first investment that the ContiTech arm of the German group has made in Romania. ContiTech Romania SRL, a company owned by ContiTech Power Transmission Systems, has been producing transmission belts since 2002. The investment related to this plant amounted to 6 million euros, and production capacity currently stands at 1 million belts per year. The plant's production capacity will reach 4 million units next year.
However, the largest investment made by Continental in Romania is that relating to the tyre plant based in Timisoara. The 100 million euros invested by Continental in the construction of a tyre plant from scrap allowed the German group to gradually increase its production capacity. At present, the 800 employees can produce 9.2 million tyres per year and in the coming period the target will stand at 10 million tyres.
The plant that was inaugurated in Sibiu last week involves investments worth 20 million euros from the Continental Automotive Systems unit. Construction works began almost 10 months ago, last autumn.
"The criteria we use when selecting a location doesn't just include attractive labour force costs and a flexible work programme. We moreover benefit from the good infrastructure of this city and the excellent potential of highly skilled workers, who can also speak English," explained Thomas Sattelberger, member of Continental board, in charge of human resources.
ionut.bonoiu@zf.ro ; transilvania@zf.ro
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