The French Montupet company, a producer of aluminium parts for the car industry, will invest in Romania about 120 million euros in a production facility whose location will be settled by mid next month.
Representatives of the French investors have seen several locations, especially industrial parks, in Timisoara, Cluj and Sibiu and are going to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of each of the three locations.
The investment, the largest one the French company will make outside France, will be carried over the next five years. The plant’s production will be divided between cylinder head components (60% of the total) and other car components, such as brake sub-assemblies, car rims, exhaust pipes, etc.(40%). Montupet has already signed a contract for the delivery of this type of car parts to Dacia-Renault plants.
To unfold production, the company will need almost 2,200 employees who will join the over 4,000 employees Montupet has worldwide.
“In the wake of this investment, Montupet becomes the leader of foreign investors in the car parts industry that have this year benefited from the assistance of the Romanian Agency for Foreign Investments (Agentia Romana pentru Investitii Straine – ARIS). Compared with the initial investment project of this July, the final decision has seen it (the project) expanded, both in financial terms, by about 10 times, as well as in size, with 5 times more jobs than initially anticipated and a larger area of 15 hectares to be used, 7 hectares of which will account for the built area,” stated Alexandru Popa, ARIS chairman.
With turnover standing at 423 million euros in 2003, the French group currently owns plants in France, Spain, UK, Canada and Mexico. Montupet is a supplier for major European carmakers (Audi, Seat, Ford, Volvo, Jaguar, Renault, Saab, Peugeot, Citroen, Bosch, etc.).
For activity expansion in Eastern Europe, the representatives of the French group also had also considered, beside Romania, countries such as Slovakia, Bulgaria and Ukraine. After several visits, they chose Romania since it has a tradition in car parts production, as well as because they have the possibility of collaborating with companies like Altur, Alro and Alprom of Slatina.
“We have discovered in Romania a business environment experienced in a domain that will witness strong growth over the following years, with credible partners and local authorities that are fully aware of the importance of sustaining these industries,” stated Didier Crozet, Montupet deputy chairman.
miruna.lebedencu@zf.ro