Germany's Ruwel AG will invest 80 million euros to make hi-tech integrated circuits in Cluj. The Cluj-Napoca Industrial Park has sold the first plots of land to the German company Ruwel, which will build a production unit spreading on 15,000 square metres. The investment will also include a hall for integrated boards aimed at the automotive industry. Ruwel AG is Germany's largest integrated boards producer, ranking second din Europe and operates plants in Germany and Denmark.
In the past few years, increasingly more Western producers of automotive parts and components have come to Romania. The well-trained workforce and the existing opportunities have prompted almost 20 European, American and Japanese companies to invest more than 500 million euros in subsidiaries or production facilities based in Romania. Beside Continental AG, Thyssen Krupp AG, BOS Automotive, Leoni AG and Lisa Draxlmaier, Ruwel's is among the largest German investments in hi-tech in Romania in the past few years.
Ruwel's chairman of the Board, Wilfried Sehner has said that the investment, the first in the Cluj industrial park, will create more than 600 jobs, with the company set to take up some 60,000 square metres. "We shall bring two production lines to Cluj, for the standard boards and for the thick copper boards," Sehner told Ziarul Financiar - Transilvania Edition.
Beside the production activities, the German company will also develop a research department. A research centre will open in Cluj next year, to attract young people to the electrotechnical products. The German investor has grounded this decision on the fact that the Cluj-based college students are highly-qualified. Ruwel will work closely with the Cluj Technical University, so that part of the 60,000 graduates can get a job at the company's Romania-based subsidiary. The German company will initially hire 150 specialists (all college graduates).
According to Wilfried Sehner, the Tetarom Park in Cluj-Napoca was chosen due to its infrastructure. "There is an international airport here, and the roads to Hungary are in good condition. We also benefited from significant support from the county officials, but the industrial park's infrastructure was also a factor," Sehner said. Tetarom general manager Viorel Gavrea told Ziarul Financiar - Transilvania Edition that "the arrival of Ruwel will send a signal to other companies, proving that, in Cluj, the investors benefit from perfectly good conditions."
The Industrial Park, established by the Cluj County Council spreads on 20 hectares and was started in 2000, under a total investment worth 11.5 million euros (5.5 million euros under a Phare project, 3.5m euros from European funds, 1.5m euros from government resources and 1m euros from the county funds).
The investors take up the space under the "greenfield" system and they benefit from the entire range of utilities.
According to Sehner, the German company is only waiting for the European Investment Bank (EIB) to endorse the project refinancing, as the bank will cover about 75% of costs. Then, works will start in several months and will take about a year.
transilvania@zf.ro
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