Vienna International Automotive Industry News

First BMW Z4 'Made in Austria' Has just Rolled off the Production Line

The new BMW Z4 has been rolling off Magna Steyr's production line for a few days now. The sporty roadster is produced exclusively in Austria for the entire world market. The BMW Z4 is - besides the BMW 5 Series - already the second BMW car that is currently produced in Austria. This emphasizes and strengthens the BMW Group's commitment to Austria as a business location.

November 22, 2018

Bosch Austria Boosts Sales by 8% and Invests €120 Million in R&D

During the 2017 fiscal year, Bosch increased its sales on the Austrian market by around eight percent to 1.25 billion euros. "We have achieved record sales. All business sectors contributed to the positive development," said Dr. Klaus Peter Fouquet, sole board member of Robert Bosch AG and representative of the Bosch Group in Austria.

June 14, 2018

Car Dealer Denzel Increases Group Turnover by Twelve Percent

Vienna-based car importer and dealer Denzel sold around 45,000 vehicles in the past fiscal year and increased group sales by 12 percent to over 830 million euros.

May 17, 2018

South Korea's LG Electronics Acquires Austrian Automotive Supplier ZKW for €1.1 Bln

South Korean electronics manufacturer LG Electronics is acquiring the Lower Austrian lighting and electronics systems specialist ZKW for more than 1.1 billion euros. It plans to buy a 70 percent stake in ZKW Holding, a supplier to Mercedes-Benz and BMW. Its holding company LG Corp. will purchase the remaining stake for 330 million Euro. LG hopes to expand its position in the automotive lighting sector for self-driving cars. ZKW was previously wholly owned by the entrepreneur Ulrich Mommert.

April 26, 2018

Doppelmayr to Build Cable Liner at London Airport

At London Luton Airport, Doppelmayr is building a cable car almost two kilometers long with a capacity of 2,720 passengers per hour and per route. This makes Luton Airport the second airport project in the UK after Birmingham for Doppelmayr. The Cable Liner is scheduled to go into operation in April 2021. Doppelmayr does not give details of the project turnover.

April 23, 2018

Palfinger: Andreas Klauser Appointed New CEO

The Supervisory Board of Palfinger AG concluded its search for a new CEO. Andreas Klauser (53), an accomplished top manager with international experience, who is currently the Global Brand President of Case IH and STEYR as well as member of the Group Executive Council of CNH Industrial, has been chosen to fill the position. He has more than 25 years of experience in the area of agricultural machinery and commercial vehicles.

April 16, 2018

Opel-PSA Group Plans Job Cuts in Vienna

By summer, 140 employees are to leave the Opel plant in Aspern. A further reduction could be avoided thanks to a new transmission order from Opel parent Groupe PSA. Engines will be produced for the previous Opel owner General Motors (GM) until 2019/20. What comes after that is still uncertain.

April 6, 2018

Fire Brigade Equipment Supplier Rosenbauer: Profit Halved in 2017

Despite a record order intake, the profit of the Upper Austrian firefighting equipment supplier Rosenbauer halved in the 2017 financial year. This was partly due to a slump in demand in the Middle East and North Africa, but also to the recently reported irregularities at a German subsidiary, which led to a write-down of EUR 3.5 million.

April 6, 2018

FACC Achieves Sales Record of EUR 750.7 Mln in 2017/18

FACC, the Sino-Austrian aircraft component manufacturer generated preliminary sales of 750.7 million euros, and the order backlog increased to US$ 5.9 billion. On March 19, FACC entered the ATX, Austria's leading index on the Vienna Prime Market, and has since been one of the 25 largest and most traded companies in Austria.

April 4, 2018

KTM to Manufacture Motorcycles in China

The Upper Austrian motorcycle manufacturer KTM plans to produce motorcycles in China from 2020/21 as well. Currently KTM manufactures at the company headquarters in Upper Austria (Mattighofen), as well as together with the partner Bajaj in India (Pune).

February 23, 2018

Rosenbauer: Preliminary Figures 2017

Rosenbauer is reporting EBIT of EUR 25.6 million for the 2017 financial year (2016: EUR 47.0 million). In particular, the decline in the Group's earnings is due to the decreased delivery volume in 2017 as a result of the low price of oil and ongoing political conflicts. This led to weak capacity utilization in some production areas.

February 13, 2018

Semperit introduces sustainable restructuring and transformation, expected pass of dividend

Semperit AG Holding introduces a phase of sustainable restructuring. The necessity of this decision is underlined by the fact that from the current point of view a single-digit negative EBIT will be reported for the last quarter of 2017.

January 25, 2018

FACC Continues to Climb in the Third Quarter 2017/18

Revenues for the first nine months of 2017/18 amount to EUR 564.0 million (comparative period 2016/17: EUR 518.6 million). The increase of 8.8% is attributable to a further significant increase in product sales of 11.4% to EUR 527.8 million.

January 16, 2018

Changes in the Supervisory Board of Aircraft Component Manufacturer FACC

Board member Mr. Wang Xuejun will be replaced by Ms. Li Li as a new member of the Supervisory Board of FACC AG. She will be delegated by FACC International Company Limited, Hong Kong, which holds a stake of 55.5% of the total of Xi’an Aircraft's stake of 91,25 %. Ms. Li is currently Director of Accounting at the Xi'an Aircraft Industry Group. She holds a law and economics degree from Zhongnan University. She also obtained an MBA from Missouri State University Branch Campus Dalian in the People's Republic of China.

November 20, 2017

What Brexit Means for Austria: Mitterlehner, Kurz, Fiat Steyr

Mitterlehner hopes that the referendum will end in Britain staying in the EU. Kurz says, that Brexit would be terrible. Fiat could relocate production of agriculture and construction machine maker CNH (Case New Holland) from UK to Steyr in case of Brexit.

June 20, 2016

Magna Steyr Aimes for full Capacity Utilisation at Graz Plant

The car manufacturers Jaguar Land Rover are moving part of their production from England to Austria. With new orders from Jaguar Land Rover, BMW and Daimler, the medium-term vehicle production at the Magna plant in Graz is set to return to levels in excess of 200,000 per year.

September 11, 2015

Jaguar Land Rover Signs Deal to Manufacture Cars in Austria

Tata Motors-owned luxury carmaker Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) said it has signed a contract manufacturing agreement with Austrian automotive firm Magna Steyr in another step to enhance its worldwide production line and build global footprint.

July 29, 2015

Cross Sells Carcarpet Manufacturer Durmont to AGM Automotive

Cross Industrial Investments agreed on a strategic partnership with AGM Automotive LLC in the sector of carcarpet production. AGM acquired a majority stake of Durmont Teppichbodenfabrik GmbH.

April 14, 2015

Hyundai and Opel Motor Vehicles Top the List of Newly Registered Passenger Cars

A total of 26,945 registrations of new motor vehicles in Austria was observed in October 2014, by 0.8% more compared to October 2013.

November 11, 2014

India to Emerge KTM Production Hub by Year End

India is on the cusp of emerging as the lead production hub of Austrian motorcycle brand KTM with the four motorcycles manufactured at the Chakan plant poised to outsell super-sports and off-road bikes rolling out of the Mattighofen facility in Austria.

October 23, 2014

Miba Expands Production Facilities in the US

Automotive supplier Miba Sinter USA, LLC, is opening new production facilities in Ohio. The extension will create 100 new jobs in the next three years and represents an investment of USD 8 million.

August 1, 2014

Indian Bajaj Auto Helps Plot KTM its Global Comeback

One in 5 of Austrian company's bikes are made in Pune, for a big cost advantage, enabling it to take market share from rivals.

July 25, 2014

Austrian Export Award 2014 for Above-Average Export Commitment

As part of a festive gala evening in Vienna's Museumsquartier, the Austrian Export Prize 2014 has been awarded by the Federal Minister for Science, Research and Economics, Reinhold Mitterlehner, and the President of the Economic Chamber Austria (WKO) Christoph Leitl.

June 26, 2014

Fiat Intensifies Investments in Poland

As reported by Polish daily Puls Biznescu, Italian automotive manufacturer Fiat plans on lauching the production of a new series, similar to the so-called Punto.

May 9, 2014

CA Immo to Sell Mercedes Benz Headquarters in Berlin

After selling Tower 185 in Frankfurt, CA Immo will now sell the headquarters of Mercedes Benz in Berlin. By this measure, debts will decline significantly for the Austrian real estate company.

October 7, 2013

Romania: Modest Growth for Metal Industry

Romania's metals sector will continue to see modest growth.

September 27, 2013

Poland Leads Ranking of Top Enterprises in CEE

Credit insurance company Coface has for the fifth time published a study about the Top 500 enterprises in Central and Eastern Europe.

September 24, 2013

Turkey: Industrial Turnover Index Grew 14.8 Percent

The statistical office of Turkey announced that the Industrial Turnover Index in July increased by 14.8 percent compared to the same month in 2012.

September 13, 2013

Russia: Disappointed About Joining WTO

A year ago, Russia joined the World Trade Organization (WTO). However, the country is not satisfied with the results despite of having negotiated about joining for 19 years.

August 26, 2013

Austria: Increased Demand in Romanian Exports

For the first time, Austria has imported goods from Romania exceeding the amount of € 1bn. Metals and machines are on top of the list of imported Austrian goods in Romania.

July 24, 2013

Russian Car Market to Get New Lift

The number of sales of new cars in Russia has declined 11 percent. This is the fourth month in a row showing declines, according to the figures of the Accociation of European Businesses (AEB).

July 10, 2013

Magna Not to Leave Austria for Eastern Europe

“There will be no impacts on Austria or Styria“, a spokeswoman announced. Instead, a plant in Belgium will “probably” be closed.

June 26, 2013

Magna Opens New Engineering Center in Shenyang

Magna International Inc., announced yesterday that its Magna Steyr operating unit continues to strengthen its worldwide network of engineering services by opening a new engineering center located in the Tiexi District of Shenyang, China.

June 26, 2013

Mitterlehner: Romania Offers New Chances for Austrian Economy

Austrian Economy Minister Reinhold Mitterlehner met his Romanian counterpart Varujan Vosganian in Vienna.

June 25, 2013

US: Active Investor in Romania

US companies remained active investors in Romania last year. Particulary the IT sector, automotive industry and oil/gas sector are increasingly strengthening their local position. Foreign direct investments from the US came at more than $ 1bn.

June 24, 2013

Eder Appeals for Reindustrialization in Europe

In an interview with Austrian daily „Kurier“, Wolfgang Eder, CEO of Austrian steel producer voestalpine talks about the future of the European steel industry and the differences to the US energy policy.

June 20, 2013

Austria: Biggest Investor in Serbia

Serbia encourages Austrian enterprises to further invest in Serbian industries.

May 16, 2013

Magna Negates Downsizing

The Canadian-Austrian automotive component supplier Magna has rejects the alleged cut in workstaff in its plant in Graz.

May 6, 2013

Magna: Workstaff in Europe to be Reduced

According to CEO Walker the factory in Graz needs to become more efficient.

May 6, 2013

KTM: Strong Growth in Q1 2013

Sales: 26,029 vehicles / +34.1%, Revenue: 163.5 mio. EUR / +20.5%, Overproportional growth in Asia (+424%), Increase of market shares in Europe (+9.4%) and US (+23.3%)

April 22, 2013

Slovenia: State Aid to Rescue and Re-Structure Companies

At its regular session, the Government also approved the draft Act Governing the Rescue and Restructuring Aid for Companies in Difficulty.

April 18, 2013

Russia: Most Important Future Market for Opel

Head of General Motors, Dan Akerson, regards Russia as the most important future market for Opel.

April 15, 2013

Czech Republic: 5.7 % Decrease of Industrial Production.

In February 2013, industrial production decreased at constant prices by 5.7%, year-on-year; working day adjusted decreased by 1.6%. Compared to the previous month, seasonally adjusted industrial production was higher by 1.6%.

April 9, 2013

Slovakia: Industrial Production Increases by 4.1 %

Production still driven by the automotive industry. Industrial production in January 2013 increased month-on-month by 4.1%.

April 3, 2013

Serbia: GDP Decreased by 1.7 % in 2012

Based on data released by the Statistical Office, GDP fell by 1.7% in 2012. Broken down by quarter, real y-o-y GDP fell by 2.7% in Q1, 0.3% in Q2, 2.1% in Q3 and 2.0% in Q4.

March 30, 2013

67 % of Estonians Work in Service Sector

According to the data of the 2011 Population and Housing Census (PHC 2011) of Statistics Estonia, 67% of persons employed in Estonia worked in service sector, 29% in industrial sector and only 4% in primary sector.