Automotive supplier ContiTech (Hanover / Germany; www.contitech.de) is investing a double-digit million euro amount in an expansion of its hose assembly line in Subotica / Serbia, which first began operations two years ago (see Plasteurope.com of 20.06.2013). The site is to receive a new production hall, due to be completed by late 2016, and which will more than double its total work space. The expansion works will create a number of jobs. ContiTech currently produces hose lines for power trains at the site, which are then delivered to European automotive manufacturers. In addition, the plant’s 650 employees also manufacture products for lorries, agricultural and industrial vehicles. The expansion comes in response to the site’s solid order book situation, said Markus Murk, head of ContiTech Mobile Fluid Systems’ Power Train unit.

The automotive supplier is also raising its profile in China, where it recently started up a 10,000 t/y synthetic rubber blends plant in Changshu. The EUR 10m facility is ContiTech’s first compounding centre for general applications – aside from tires and conveyor belts – outside of Europe. To date, the company has been producing synthetic rubber blends for applications such as driving belts, hoses or car tires at its plants in Germany and Hungary.

In stark contrast to these recent investments, the company plans to close its hose assembly facility in Salzgitter / Germany by the end of June 2016. The site’s 220 employees are to be offered jobs at other group plants, the company said. The redundancy programme calls for a four-step closure. At first, 53 positions will be scrapped by 1 September, another 46 will follow by 1 January 2016, and by 1 March next year, an additional 35 positions will be axed. By 30 June 2016 the technical lines and machines are expected to have been dismantled, to be moved to other company sites.