Samvardhana Motherson Group to expand mirrors plant in Hungary

Photo by SMG

Indian automotive components supplier Samvardhana Motherson Group (SMG) has announced further investment plans for its production plants in Hungary.

In addition to a major project to construct a green field 100,000 square metre car bumper moulding plant at Kecskemét in central Hungary announced earlier this year, the company is planning to expand capacity at its Mosonszolnok rear-view car mirrors facility.

That is one of two national production units, the other one at Mosonmagyaróvár near the Austrian border, and an engineering centre at Gy?r, operated by group mirrors business Samvardhana Motherson Refletec (SMR).

In October, SMR signed a ‘strategic cooperation agreement’ with Hungary’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó on behalf of the government, the 64th company to have entered into a long-term partnership and commitment to creating jobs in the country.

Partner firms have already created 200,000 jobs, employing 15,000 more workers since they entered into strategic cooperation deals, according to the government.

SMR, which has a current Hungarian workforce of 1,525, is committed to enlarging the SMR Automotive Mirror Technology Holding Hungary Kft. plant at Mosonszolnok as part of group Hungary investments of almost €100m.

SMR has 25 production plants and three research and development centres worldwide. In the business year 2014-2015, the firm achieved turnover of almost €1.28bn. It has a 22% rear view mirror market share and supplies almost every major vehicle manufacturer in Europe, North America, Asia and Australia.

Together with the Hungarian planned bumper plant of SMR’s sister company Samvardhana Motherson Peguform (SMP), a producer of plastics components and system modules for vehicle interior and exterior, the group intends to create a total of 450 jobs nationally.

Land was purchased for the new Kecskemét facility this October and construction is set to commence soon. Plant start up is scheduled for the final quarter of the financial year of 2017-2018, according to the Indian group. The plant is due to supply the local Mercedes Benz assembly plant from 2016.

Meanwhile, SMP has invested further in Spain where it installed a €2.3m car bumper painting line for its moulding operation at Polinya in Catalunya, near Barcelona. This was due to start operating in the third quarter of the financial year 2015-16.