Quality suppliers required
More than two hundred participants from a hundred companies from the automotive industry sector participated in the third SEE Automotive conference that was held in New Sad this year for the first time. Eminent automotive equipment manufacturers and representatives of the largest companies from the automotive sector, such as BMW, Fiat, Volkswagen, Federal Mogul, Grammer, Bosch, Magna and others attended the conference. Enterpreneurs from Serbia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovakia, Greece and Turkey participated.
The conference was organized by the Automotive cluster of Serbia and Vojvodina Investment Promotion Fund with the aim of positioning the Southeast Europe region and connecting suppliers and car manufacturers that have been increasing in that market.
„On the one hand labor force price in our region is relatively acceptable and on the other hand we are close to the large European car manufacturers which have noticed the advantages of the countries from this region regarding experience and tradition in the automotive equipment and automotive parts manufacturing. Automotive equipment manufacturers in our region have come close to the high standards, thus renowned car manufacturers from Europe have been cooperating with the suppliers from Far East less and less. Europe wants to position itself not only as a leading car manufacturer, but also as leading automotive equipment manufacturer,“ said Toni Štambuk, Sales Manager for the FCA Group and EU market in AD Plastik.
Over the past 16 years the value of foreign investments in Serbia amounted to EUR 25 bilion, of which 10 percent of investments refered to the automotive industry. Most of these investments have been made due to the decision of large car manufacturers to transfer part of their business to this region.
Geographical location, qualified labor force, acceptable logistics costs, flexibility and motivation have been pointed out at the conference as advantages of this region, while a small amount of local companies and insufficient use of modern technologies have been highlighted as disadvantages.
Participants have talked about trends in the automotive industry, so manufacturers held speeches about innovativeness they require from their suppliers and cooperation that should be based on trust and partnership. One of the main goals of the European car manufacturers is to reduce vehicle weight by 25% by 2020 in order to reduce CO2 emissions.
