German car parts maker PWO starts building production plant in Serbia's Cacak

The new plant, which will be PWO Group's tenth location, is expected to start manufacturing the first components and systems and delivering them to customers by the end of 2025, the German group said in a statement on Tuesday.

The Cacak plant will spread on a 100,000 square metre land plot and will create more than 500 jobs in the coming years, the statement read. It did not disclose the value of the investment.

"While initially it was mainly labour-intensive production that was relocated to Serbia, companies are increasingly locating parts of their engineering and development in Serbia in addition to their production. This means that the country will also play an important role in shaping the mobility of the future," the statement read.

PWO Group has production plants in Germany and the Czech Republic. In 2023, it purchased the assets of tool manufacturer Gorenje MDM in Kragujevac, also in central Serbia, some 50 km northeast of Cacak, acquiring equipment for developing, constructing, manufacturing and testing of tools for sheet metal cold forming. PWO Group said at the time that in Kragujevac it will develop, manufacture and test powerful tools for sheet metal cold forming as part of its global toolmaking strategy, focusing on intelligent tools for Industry 4.0 applications and the smart factory of the future.