August 28 (SeeNews) - Magna International Inc. said it would build a railway track to the paint factory it is planning to establish in Slovenia's Hoce–Slivnica municipality to address environmental concerns which have surfaced among local NGOs.
"In our current business plans, transport will be done by trucks, but we are aware that transport by rail potentially is an environmentally more friendly form of transport", the Austrian-Canadian company said in a letter to Slovenia's economy ministry and published on the ministry website over the weekend.
Magna noted it is committed to have the industrial railways within the Hoce plant built in first phase of the company investment in order to reduce harmful emissions and protect air quality.
"If a track is built up to the plant and Magna expands its plant from a paint shop to a fully developed automobile plant (phases 2 and 3), we intend to carry out train transportation as well to optimize our operations to the greatest extent possible," the company noted.
Slovenian media reported last week that Magna International could abandon its decision to build a paint factory in Slovenia and relocate the project to Hungary where it has already obtained a building permit.
Slovenian news agency STA said that as Slovenian NGOs prepare to lodge an appeal against a decision to grant Magna an environmental permit to build the factory, the automotive group is eying Hungary as an alternative location.
Slovenia's Environment Agency awarded a permit to Magna earlier this month, but if NGOs launch an appeal the issuance of a construction permit could be delayed by months.
In January, Magna International said it will invest into a new paint facility in Slovenia to help support new programmes going into its contract vehicle assembly facility in the Austrian city of Graz, opening 400 jobs.
Canada-based Magna International runs some 309 manufacturing operations and 99 product development, engineering and sales centres in 29 countries. In Serbia, it operates Magna Seating, which makes seating systems for Renault, Ford and Smart.