Arconic starts another huge expansion in Székesfehérvár - VIDEO REPORT
2018. 03. 06.
Arconic Wheel and Transportation Products – producing Alcoa Wheels - as a global key actor serves the commercial transportation and city bus market with a range of fully forged aluminum wheels announced another expansion in Hungary to double the capacities of the Székesfehérvár unit, which is the European centre of the wheel product division. The greenfield investment representing a high quality and high added-value manufacturing of wheels of heavy duty vehicles results in the building of a new manufacturing hall of 17,000 square metres and in 200 new jobs.
Arconic's predecessor Alcoa divided its activities in 2016 and assigned the portfolio characterised by a higher added value and innovation (air transport, automotive industry, military industry, transportation, industrial solutions, building industry, energetics) to Arconic while Alcoa kept the traditional aluminium industry portfolio and energy division (alumina, bauxite, cast products).
Arconic and Alcoa both have their subsidiaries in Hungary. The European centre of the wheel product division of Arconic affected by this investment is in Székesfehérvár, being part of Arconic-Köfém Ltd. As a result of this greenfield investment of EUR 107 million which is supported by a development tax advantage, Arconic builds a new manufacturing hall of 17,000 square metres and it bought a plot of more than 53,000 square metres in the Székesfehérvár industrial park for this purpose. The installation of new production lines shall increase the capacities of the Székesfehérvár wheel plant. Manufacturing is planned to start at the end of 2019 with 200 new jobs.
The project aims to double the production capacities of Arconic Wheels business, due to a growth in demand from European and global markets. According to the forecasts, global sales of commercial vehicle wheels manufactured by the Arconic group is expected to grow by 71% by 2022 since the regulatory framework still provides a favourable environment for the aluminium market. Revenues from capacity expansion may exceed USD 100 million annually by 2023. The first stage of the investment project started in 2014 when the production of titanium-covered screws was located to Nemesvámos and it went on by expanding the manufacturing capacities of the building of the Székesfehérvár plant in 2015.
As a strategic partner of the Hungarian government, Arconic keeps on expanding its presence in Hungary. For almost two decades it has a shared service centre (SSC) employing more than 450 persons and providing financial and administrative support worldwide, apart from manufacturing.
