Bosch moves production from Wales to Hungary

This week sees the end of production at the Miskin plant of the German automobile components manufacturer Bosch in South Wales as work is transferred to the company's plant Hungary where labor costs are lower.

Robert Bosch GmbH, the world’s largest supplier of automobile components, that opened the Miskin plant in 1991, made a decision in January 2010 to move production from Wales to Hungary where it has manufacturing capacities in four different locations. At that time, Bosch employed at the Miskin plant some 900 people, of which less than 500 remained by now. The factory will be taken over by the engineering company Renishaw will from October but there is no information, yet, of how many people they will employ.

As the BBC reported, the world economic crisis resulted in a major drop in the sales of alternators (generator components). The German company carried out a feasibility study and it concluded it should move work to Hungary where labor costs are roughly two-thirds what they are in Wales. Since the crisis put great pressure on the automobile industry to cut costs, the lower expenses in Hungary were important consideration.

The Bosch Group has been present in Hungary since 1989 and currently employs some 7,000 people in this country. This makes the firm the second largest foreign industrial employer in Hungary.