Nissan to receive parts from Sfantu Gheorghe

The Japanese giant Nissan, member of the Renault-Nissan Alliance, a unique group of two global companies, will begin using auto components produced in as of the end of this year.  
 

Valid Group, a Hungarian company specialized in consultation services, will invest some €1.2 million in modernizing a former auto parts factory in Sfantu Gheorghe to manufacture cabling and locksmithing components for Nissan.

Valid Technologies, a division of Valid Group, which also benefits from financial assistance from an American partner, will hire 400 people for the production activity and a further 20 for administration.

“We have not yet established the final value of the investment, but it will be somewhere around €1.2 million,” Erno Czibere, Managing Director of Valid Technologies, told Business Standard.

Production will start at the end of 2007, and the factory will be producing at its full capacity in the first quarter of 2008. Company officials say there will be up to eight production lines on the 3,600 square meter area of the assembly hall.

“The company will produce cabling and locksmithing components for Nissan. In the first stage, it will hire 40 people who will be sent to for training by the end of this year,” said Kelemen Tibor, Manager of the County Employment Agency (AJOFM). These 40 people will in turn instruct other employees. According to local officials, the Hungarian company initially wanted the investment location to be Targu Mures, but Sfantu Gheorghe was chosen by reason of availability of a workforce. According to the Romanian Automobile Constructors Association (ACAROM), in 2006, the auto parts industry registered total net sales worth of €3.2-3.5 billion and employed some 120,000 Romanians.

The development in the auto parts industry is tightly linked to new car production and sales. has become the largest new car market in Central and Eastern Europe , with over 250,000 units sold. ranks second, with 239,038 registered cars, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA).