While property prices in Zalaegerszeg were essentially stagnant in 2023, they rose by 17 percent until February 2024.Continue reading
Flex, one of the world’s largest automotive suppliers, is building a new factory and making major technological improvements in Zalaegerszeg (western Hungary), the U.S. company announced on Wednesday.
Speaking at the announcement, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said that the investment is worth around HUF 36 billion (EUR 92.5 million), for which the government is providing HUF 7.8 billion (EUR 20 million) in funding, helping to create 210 new jobs, many of them with high added value. Twenty of these jobs will be related specifically to research and development.
He underlined that
the company, present in more than 30 countries, will produce high-tech components for the biggest car brands, including those with factories in Hungary.
In his speech, he praised the performance of the Hungarian automotive industry, noting that more than half a million vehicles rolled off Hungarian production lines last year. He also pointed out that with all three major German car manufacturers now established in Hungary, the Chinese giant BYD is also coming, making Hungary one of the European strongholds of the electric car transition.
By doubling current production, Hungary will be one of five countries in the world that will be able to produce more than a million cars a year within a few years, but it is essential that the supply industry can keep pace, he said. In this respect, the investment just announced is a big step forward, the Minister added.
He noted that U.S. companies are the second largest investor community in Hungary today, with 1,700 companies employing nearly 100,000 people. He added that over the past ten years, 133 U.S. companies have invested a total of HUF 700 billion in Hungary with Hungarian government support.
Zoltán Balaicz, Mayor of Zalaegerszeg, announced on his social media page that
construction of the new 10,000 square meter plant will start this summer and that the aim is to hand it over in the summer of 2025.”
Flex’s new plant will produce high-voltage electric and hybrid vehicle components for car manufacturers in Hungary, including BMW. It will also collaborate with Ford and Volkswagen, the Mayor wrote.
Via MTI, Featured image: Facebook/ Flex – Hungary