Daimler to invest EUR 595m at its base in Hungary

Budapest, April 29 (MTI) – German carmaker Daimler will invest 185 billion forints (EUR 595m) at its base in Kecskemét, in central Hungary, to build a new car body plant and improve existing facilities, Mercedes-Benz Manufacturing Hungary said on Friday.

Construction work on the car body plant is set to be finished by 2018. Daimler will spend around 80 billion forints on the 99,000 sqm plant.

As part of the larger investment project, Daimler will also purchase efficient and innovative machinery for already existing plants at its base to make improvements and expand production capacity.

Daimler opened its 1 billion euro plant in Kecskemét in the spring of 2012. It started making compact B-class models, but added the CLA coupe to the product palette in 2013 and the CLA Shooting Brake in 2015. Mercedes-Benz Manufacturing Hungary employs almost 4,000 workers now and relies on 32 local suppliers.

Péter Szijjártó, Hungary’s minister of foreign affairs and trade, said Kecskemét was the best possible investment destination for Mercedes-Benz. “Mercedes-Benz’s slogan is ‘The Best or Nothing’, and indeed they chose the best when they chose Kecskemét and Hungary,” he said. He said the manufacturer’s total investments in Hungary had now exceeded 500 billion forints.

The minister said the latest investment vindicated the government’s policy of aiming to make Hungary the European centre of high value-added economic activities.

Photo: MTI

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters