Schaeffler is to start work on the construction of a plant in Russia this March, with a beginning of production date estimated to be in the middle of next year.
Speaking to just-auto at last weeks’ North American International Auto Show (NAIAS), Schaeffler CEO, Juergen Geissinger, confirmed Russia would form part of the supplier’s plans as well as other areas of Eastern Europe.
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“We have a strong factory base in Eastern Europe, like Hungary Romania, which need highly qualified and skilled people,” he said. “The next step is Russia for us and that is the next factory we will start [building] in March.
“Schaeffler Group has grown above average and out-performed the market. We expect sales growth of around 4% this year. We are in the fortunate position to hire new staff and create 2,500 jobs last year – [of which] around 600 in North America.
The supplier recently said it had also performed well during the first nine months of last year despite difficult economic conditions, especially the third quarter.
“Our industrial business in particular felt the impact of the difficult economic conditions in Europe and the slowdown in the economic development of the emerging countries over the course of the [2012] third quarter,” said Geissinger.
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By GlobalData“However, we were able to again grow profitably within this challenging environment during the third quarter.”
