BUCHAREST (Romania), October 6 (SeeNews) – German car parts maker Eberspaecher Group opened on Thursday an exhaust technology plant in the Romanian northwestern city of Oradea following an investment of 14 million euro ($15.6 million).
The plant will produce catalytic converters and exhaust silencers for European automobile manufacturers, Eberspaecher said in a press release.
The group plans to bring the final investment at Oradea to 32 million euro.
By 2020, it plans to raise the plant's annual production capacity to 1.5 million mufflers and catalytic converters as well as up to 5 million pipes. At full capacity, a catalytic converter will be produced every 15 seconds on the automated and highly flexible production lines, it said.
The plant will have 150 employees this year, as their number is expected to reach 650 in the medium-term perspective.
The plant, with an area of some 27,500 sq m, was built in less than eight months. The total area occupied by the group in Oradea, including logistics area and an office complex, adds up to 11 hectares.
The decision to expand in Romania reflected strong growth of the exhaust technology division through new contracts, the company said, adding that it chose Oradea for the new plant due to "excellent logistic connections to main traffic routes to European customers, in addition to the well-trained local technicians and engineers".
"With the new plant we are continuing our orientation towards strategic global production as well as our global growth trajectory," Eberspaecher Exhaust Technology COO Thomas Waldhier said.
The group first announced its intention to invest in Oradea in December.
Eberspaecher Group is one of the largest developers and suppliers of exhaust systems, heating systems for cars and air conditioning systems for buses. In 2015, the group had more than 8,600 employees and posted sales of around 4.4 billion euro.
($=0.8944 euro)