Sirha Budapest 2020

According to the participants of the 7th AUTOMOTIVE HUNGARY exhibition of international automotive industry suppliers and the concurrently organized AutótechnikaAutodiga exhibition, both events were highly successful in terms of their professional and business goals. Coming from 15 countries, the 200 exhibitors and the many professional programmes attracted over 10000 visitors to HUNGEXPO Budapest Conference and Exhibition Center.

The Hungarian automotive industry has doubled its output in the past nine years while the number of employees increased by 34% in the sector, said Dr. László György, State Secretary for Economic Strategy and Regulation of the Ministry for Innovation and Technology (ITM). He added that Hungary’s automotive industry had grown by nearly 12 per cent over the first eight months of 2019 despite the shrinking production in Germany.

Addressing the participants of the opening ceremony, Hungexpo’s Chief Executive Officer Gábor Ganczer noted that AUTOMOTIVE HUNGARY was able to renew regularly and kept growing along with the sector’s development year by year.

This year’s event featured the products and innovations of 200 exhibitors from 15 countries. Beside the four car and engine manufacturers in Hungary, i.e., Audi, Mercedes, Opel and Suzuki, the exhibition was attended by the largest suppliers, service providers, state organizations and trade associations as well. AUTOMOTIVE HUNGARY – and the concurrently held Autótechnika-Autodiga professional exhibition – was the only event in the region to present the entire spectrum of automobile production from design to manufacturing and servicing.

The related professional programmes and further training courses enjoyed an enormous interest from the participants. Portfolio and MAGE’s Industry 4.0 conference featured such topics as digitalization, the design and implementation of development projects as well as the smart factory.

Organized by the Ministry for Innovation and Technology, the “Automotive industry on the road of innovation” conference focused on the integration of Industry 4.0 solutions, the utilization of synergies, the cooperation between universities and industry players, knowledge transfers and market operation. The event was attended by executives in charge of education from six universities, who discussed the relations between the industry and education. As Dr. Barna Hanula, the dean of the Audi Hungaria Vehicle Engineering Faculty at Győr’s István Széchenyi University put it, we need to reconsider the objectives of Hungary’s higher education. “Our relations with Audi Hungaria has clearly shown that developing students’ mindset and cognitive skills is the truly important thing, rather than specific knowledge,” the expert emphasized.

Senior research fellow of BMGE’s Faculty of Transportation Engineering and Vehicle Engineering (KJK) Dr. Máté Zöldy underlined the importance of education institutions having “constant value-seeking relations” with the industry. “We have started the process of universities bringing back colleagues from the industry, which helps us to achieve a common thinking with the corporate sector,” he said. The conference organized by Pannon Business Network – am-LAB Digital Innovation Hub primarily focused on digitalization, the connection between artificial intelligence and the automotive industry, the situation in Germany’s automotive industry, the mindset of the large car manufacturers and robot-assisted manufacturing processes.

For many years, one of AUTOMOTIVE HUNGARY’s most popular events has always been the MAGE – HIPA B2B supplier forum, which offers unique business opportunities for suppliers and buyers alike. The B2B forum allows buyers to assess the Hungarian supplier companies, meet them personally and potentially make deals later. For the first time this year, the buyers of international and Hungarian automotive manufacturers and key system integrators had 274 successful business negotiations with the representatives of over 60 potential suppliers.

Held for the first time in Hungary, the Volvo Supplier Forum was a special occasion where Hungarian suppliers got an insight into the procurement and cooperation policies of a leading international automotive corporation. The ideas were presented by the representatives of Volvo’s bus, truck and machine manufacturing branches.

As part of the exhibition, the traditional Techtogether competition for engineering students was organized with sixteen college teams. This year’s winner was Arrabona Racing Team – István Széchenyi. The competition was complemented by a roundtable discussion on labour affairs where the participating students could ask questions from the HR associates of the largest automotive corporations and their suppliers, such as Mercedes Benz Manufacturing Hungary Ltd and Thyssenkrupp Components Technology Hungary.

Hungexpo announced the AUTOMOTIVE HUNGARY Innovation Product Award competition for the second time this year. Having received several high-quality applications, the professional jury, which consisted of MAGE’s secretary general Csaba Kilián, autopro.hu’s managing director István Szammer and GTE’s president dr. János Takács, presented three Prizes and two Special Awards.