Industrial News
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Dieter Haap makes no bones about why W.E.T. Auto Systems, a German car parts maker, mothballed its Hungarian factory and moved production of car seats to a new plant in western Ukraine. “Hungary became too expensive,” says Mr Haap, the company’s chief financial officer. “The Hungarian production costs were seven times higher than Ukraine....
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BERLIN — Central European tech startups are creating more sustainable businesses today than several years ago, according to Dariusz Nachyla, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu regional managing partner for technology, media and telecommunications, based in Warsaw.
Nachyla is in charge of The Deloitte Technology "Fast 50" Program in Central Europe,...
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BUDAPEST — Despite a tight employment market and wage appreciation, Hungary remains an attractive site for Mentor Graphics to expand its automotive networking software development team, said Joachim Langenwalter, director of Mentor's automotive networking business unit.
Mentor entered Budapest in 2000 through an acquisition. Today the company employs...
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BUDAPEST — Solar panel production and semiconductors have become the investment priorities of the Hungarian government.
Cash grants, development aid and tax breaks more favorable than traditional incentives will be available to companies investing in production in these sectors, said Agnes Henter, head of project management at the ITD, Hungary’s...
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BUDAPEST — Central and Eastern Europe’s information technology outsourcing market last year was worth $3B, according to a study by a consortium of CEE IT organizations.
The leading recipient countries for IT outsourcing business were Ukraine, Romania, Hungary, Poland and Czech Republic.
According to the research, the most expensive countries...
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BERLIN — Romania's labor shortage was highlighted in a 32-country study by human resources firm Manpower, which found 73 percent of companies in Romania were unable to find skilled personnel for open positions.
The areas hardest hit are Bucharest and Western Romania, which includes Timisoara and Arad, said Eliza Nechifor, spokeswoman for Manpower...
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Cobra Beer, the India-themed lager brand that outsourced production to Poland, is to shift the bulk of its brewing back to the UK to save money due to soaring transportation costs and the strengthening of the Polish zloty against sterling and the euro.
Adrian McKeon, chief executive of Cobra Beer, said the brewer expected to save about £3m a year immediately...
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11-Apr-2008 - Czech demand for imported cheeses continues to grow following the country's accession to member state status within the EU, creating opportunities for exporters of the product in the bloc, according to an industry expert.
Michal Nmec, chairman of the Czech and Moravian Dairy Association, told DairyReporter.com that cheese imports into the...
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New Zealand’s AHI Roofing on Tuesday laid the cornerstone for a Ft 4 billion (EUR 15.88 million) metal roof tile plant in Várpalota...
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Russian energy giant Gazprom is concerned over delays in the ratification of the South Stream gas pipeline agreement by Serbia, a Gazprom official said on Wednesday.
Russia and Serbia signed an agreement on January 25 as part of the South Stream project to construct a pipeline for the transit of Russian natural gas through Serbia to the Balkans and...
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Russia’s largest independent crude producer LUKoil is in talks with UK-based Regal Petroleum on buying its gas deposits in Ukraine, a British paper said on Wednesday.
Regal Petroleum, licensed to develop Ukraine’s Mekhediviska-Golotvschinska and Svyrydivske fields with total reserves of over 25 billion cubic meter of gas and almost 6 million...
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Agriculture analysts expect Hungary’s farm sector to expand 10-15% this year, and value added in the sector could expand even more, by 15-20%, a study by Kopint-Tárki and Agrar Europa shows.
Kopint-Tárki chief researcher Márton Szabó said the expansion would bring Hungary’s farm sector back to 2006 levels following...
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Amcor Flexibles, a division of Amcor, today announces an investment of €25-million to build a new state-of the-art plant in Lodz, Poland. This investment aligns with the company’s strategy for growth in Central and Eastern Europe and confirms its investment in its future.
The project is initially known as AF Polska Greenfield and will include...
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BERLIN — Germany's Robert Bosch GmbH announced a 30M euro ($46.8M) investment in new projects in Poland, according to local reports.
Most of the pledged investment is planned for the company's joint-venture with Japan's Denso to manufacture diesel particulate filters near Wroclaw.
Bosch also plans to invest in a 130-person IT center and office building...
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BERLIN — Poland believes it can attract $79B (50B Euros) in total foreign investment over the next three-year period despite rising wages, a growing labor shortage and the global slowdown, Pawel Wojciechowski, president of the Polish investment agency PAIZ, told Reuters.
Last year, total FDI was about $24B (15B Euros).
In the first quarter of 2008,...
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BERLIN — Romania tells two stories. On the one hand, foreign investors consider the country the most attractive destination for investment in Central and Eastern Europe. According to a survey by the Center for European Economic Research (ZEW), 37 percent of foreign investors polled consider Romania the most attractive site, ahead of Poland at 34 percent...
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The Czech Republic, , and are expected to become major auto export hubs and centers for auto electronics suppliers, feeding local and Western European markets. But labor markets are tightening, wages are rising and suppliers must consider looking to new regions for production.
Johnson Control's Skopje plant has an assembly-and-test line for fitting electronic...
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BERLIN — Russian electronics conglomerate Sitronics took a net loss of $234M (150M euros) for fiscal year 2007 while semiconductor unit revenues outperformed all other divisions.
The company's microelectronic solutions unit, which includes semiconductor manufacturing, saw revenues soar 77 percent to $217M (139M euros) year-on-year.
"Strong...
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ARCADIS (EURONEXT: ARCAD), the international consultancy, design and engineering company, announced today that it has acquired Elekol, a Polish company active in railway infrastructure and transportation. Elekol has 40 employees and annual gross revenues of approximately EUR 3 million. The margins are above the target margin for ARCADIS in the infrastructure...
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BERLIN — Japan's JVC became the second company this month to announce a manufacturing shift from Western Europe to Poland.
The company plans to move television production from Lanarkshire in the UK to Poland in attempt to lower operational costs.
The shift involves the loss of 360 jobs in the UK, according to the Evening Times.
JVC had not been...
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BERLIN — US-based Acxiom, an IT services company, announced plans to open an IT center in Gdansk, Poland that could employ up to 500 IT specialists, according to PAIZ, the Polish state investment promotion agency.
The Gdansk operation is expected to open in July and initially employ 100, which could rise to 500 in the next few years. In Poland, Acxiom...
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23-Apr-2008 - Demand for nature-identical flavours in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) remains strong, as lower prices override the Western clamour for all-things natural and organic, say exhibitors at FiCEE.
Andrzej Tatrzanski, international project manager for privately-held Polish company Carotex, said that a few years ago Carotex expected Poland to...
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BERLIN — Dell Computer, which runs a notebook PC factory in Łódź, Poland, plans to double the production capacity as well as the number of workers, according to Invest in Poland (PAIZ), the state investment promotion agency.
This year, the company expects to open a third production line and begin work on a fourth. The added lines are expected...
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10-Apr-2008 - Eastern Europe is increasingly drawing the attention of foreign pharmaceutical investments owing to the less-developed markets having a high growth potential, a new report reveals.
Countries such as Turkey, Bulgaria, Russia, Romania and the Ukraine are particularly attractive, with the latter three showing the most popularity,...
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Something has changed on Poland’s roads and it is not their state of repair, which remains atrocious. It is the disappearance of the once ubiquitous Fiat 126p, the car that introduced motoring to Poland’s masses.
The decline of the rattly two-door car, which strains to break 100km per hour, is a tangible sign of Poland’s increasing wealth...
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Italian luxury-furniture company Mobili D’Arte Brotto Sante Giorgio is intending to expand its production base in Hungary, the business daily Napi Gazdaság reported on Monday.
Arte Brotto will transfer treatment of inlaid furniture surfaces to its Lumber-fa Kft facility in Kerta (west-Hungary), where the company plans to make significant...
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15-Apr-2008 - French ingredients company Roquette hopes to tap into Russia's growing food market with its opening of a new sales subsidiary in Moscow.
Although the company, which specialises in starch production, has been present in the country for more than ten years, its sales activities had previously been represented by Rhodia. Now that it has seen...
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11-Apr-2008 - Russia could become one of the world's top three grain exporters within five years, Russia's Agricultural Minister Alexei Gordeyev has been reported as saying.
The announcement, reported in Interfax wire service news, came as the Moscow Stock Exchange began regular trading of agricultural products on 7 April. Although rises of grain prices...
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BERLIN — Sony’s Image Sensing Solutions unit will enlarge its distribution network across Eastern Europe in a bid to bolster regional business.
“We expect to add partners in all major Eastern European countries to serve their local markets,” said Gary Quinn, senior manager for the region. “We do not have a cap on the quantity,...
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LONDON — Kimball Electronics, the U.S. headquartered contract electronics manufacturer, is to close its plant in Longford, Ireland, where 66 jobs are expected to be lost over the next seven months.
The company said it needs to consolidate European operations and is moving the production done at Longford to its plant in Poznan, Poland.
In a statement,...
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Switzerland’s Schaffner Group, Europe’s biggest maker of electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) products, is moving the last of its production from Western Europe to Hungary, business daily Világgazdaság reported on Tuesday.
Schaffner will start production in May of EMC products as well as transformers at a plant it is building...
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Poland's banking system has so far been little affected by the credit crisis sweeping through more developed economies, but local bankers fret that eastern Europe's largest economy will not escape unscathed.
"There is no basis for any kind of serious fear, but there is reason for caution," says Krzysztof Pietraszkiewicz, head of the Polish banking...
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BERLIN — The growing momentum among carmakers to turn out low-priced cars in high volume is sending more auto electronics development to lowcost Eastern Europe.
By 2014, electronic system demand in Eastern Europe is expected to reach $11.1B, up nearly 450 percent from $2.5B in 2002, according to Strategy Analytics.
"We are seeing more automotive...
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Startech Environmental Corp intends to install its first Plasma Converter System at a designated facility in Bytom, Poland to process ten-tons of industrial waste per day.
Joseph F. Longo, Startech president, said, “The Bytom installation is especially important to the Company because it is the opener to the entire European market including the large...
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BERLIN — IBM's operation in Brno, Czech Republic, went from 50 to 2400 employees in two years despite a skilled labor shortage in Central Europe.
"Last year, we calculated that we brought in four new employees every day, seven days a week," said Friedrich Immer, managing director of IBM's Integrated Delivery Center in Brno.
The company...
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21-Mar-2008 - The Fazer Russia group this week said it has signed an agreement to build a new bakery in Leningrad, as part of the company's ongoing plans to increase its presence in the Russian market.
"The greenfield bakery in St Petersburg supports Fazer's growth strategy and strengthens our position as one of the leading bakery companies in Russia,"...
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BERLIN — Wipro, India's third largest IT firm, announced plans to set up a research and service center in Wroclaw, Poland, to provide support to Switzerland-based client Credit Suisse.
The center is expected to employ 140 IT staff and will be jointly managed by Wipro and Credit Suisse. It will concentrate on transaction processing related to human...
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The Central & Eastern European (CEE) region has emerged as the focus for major growth in the logistics property market over the next few years, and thus an opportunity for investors and developers, according to the latest report by CB Richard Ellis, Industrial and Logistics Property in the Future.
Consumer spending over the next five years is forecast...
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09-Mar-2006 - Wincanton has won the tender for the storage and handling for Bols Hungary, the countries second largest spirit importer and distributor, following the expansion of its client base in Hungary late last year.
The company beat off competition from eight competitors in a two-round tender process resulting in Wincanton securing the three year...
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BERLIN — Samsung and Sony are among the companies expanding manufacturing operations in Slovakia as the country prepares to adopt the euro currency in 2009.
Samsung's 320 million euro ($496M) expansion at its LCD and plasma TV factory, in Trnava, near Bratislava, is expected to create 1,400 new jobs. The investment will increase capacity at the plant...
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The US company Ball Packaging Europe, will enter the Euro-Park Special Economic Zone in Mielec. In the first stage of its development the firm is to invest 200 million EUR and employ app. 100 workers
On 31st January 2008 the company signed an agreement with the Agricultural Academy in Lublin, due to which it will become the owner of 12.5 ha of land within...
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Up to 2012 over 120 billion PLN will be invested in the development of the nation’s roads. A similar amount will be invested in roads managed by the local authorities - it was stated by the General Overseers of Domestic Roads and Motorways (GDDKiA).
The GDDKiA intend to involve not only large firms in the investments, but also companies from the sector...
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BERLIN — The Russian market could see the world's first laptop fuel-cell recharger.
Moscow-based Aspect Association, an organization working with a network of Russian technology companies, announced plans to mass produce fuel-cell chargers for laptop computers by the end of 2009.
Aspect, the main state contractor for the development of portable...
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The biggest American player in Hungary and active in several industries, General Electric Company has already invested over USD 1 billion in the country, but now has to think over further investments in the light of recent, disadvantageous changes in tax policy, with special respect to solidarity tax, said John G. Rice, vice chairman and president-EO of GE's...
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Chinese technology giant Lenovo said it will open a factory in the Legnica Special Economic Zone in Poland.
The facility will support customers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, including product assembly and configuration, distribution services and logistics along with additional value-added services, such as custom imaging, asset tagging and labeling. ...
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British company Imperial Energy said on Monday it was considering holding an initial public offering of its Russia-based oil service subsidiary, Rus Imperial Group.
Imperial Energy, a British company focused on oil exploration and production in former Soviet republics, holds licenses to explore and develop oil deposits in Russia’s Tomsk Region in...
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The consortium behind the Nabucco gas pipeline has signed letters of intent with seven European companies for deliveries of gas through the pipeline, the consortium’s managing director Reinhard Mitschek said Friday in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires.
“We have signed letters of intent with seven big, reputable companies in Europe for long-term...
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The University of Warmia and Mazury has established a new Renewable Energy Centre. Its main task is research into new sources of energy, biofuels, and utilization of sun, wind and geothermal energy sources.
The centre will also manage the project, obtain EU funding and seek companies to implement the new technologies invented by researchers.
According to...
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Central European Distribution Corporation (NASDAQ:CEDC) signed a binding Letter of Intent (LOI) in July 2007, to acquire a significant majority interest in various production and distribution assets related to the Parliament vodka brand in Russia and abroad. Since July, CEDC has worked closely with Parliament management to effectively move forward with a...
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Procter&Gamble plans to invest USD 50mn in a new cosmetics plant to be located in Aleksandrow Lodzki in Central Poland and another USD 50mn on expanding its plant in Warsaw’s district of Targowek, PG’s director general for Poland and Baltic countries, Marek Kapuscinski, said in an interview with the daily Wall Street Journal Polska .
The...
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Bulgaria's ex-foreign minister Salomon Passi declared that the Nabucco gas pipeline project would be beneficial for both Bulgaria and the European Union.
"The project is strategic not only for Bulgaria but for the whole EU," Passi, who is the chair of a foreign policy parliamentary commission, told Darik radio on Monday.
"Bulgaria has a key...
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Metrorex will increase, starting in February, the tariffs for the metro trips by an average of 8.75 per cent, declared the general manager of the company, Gabriel Mocanu, informs Rompres. “Further to calculations, we proposed to increase the tariffs starting in February by an average of 8.75 per cent. Our proposal was approved by the Ministry of Transports...
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Austria's Mayr-Melnhof Karton AG, the world leader in recycled fiber based cartonboard, said it has started the production of cartonboards for the construction industry at its Bulgarian factory in Nikopol. The output will be supplied to Germany's Knauf and France's La Farge. The new equipment cost BGN 2 mln. Mayr-Melnhof said the Nikopol output will reach...
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The experts asked also for the charge to decrease depending on the length of service. The Government will set the final value of the first registration charge in keeping with three new requirements of the European Commission (EC), but which will not fundamentally alter the values proposed by the Romanian experts, as recently declared by Attila Korodi, Minister...
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BERLIN — After eight months of work, ChipInvest, the Czech Republic’s chip design venture based at Brno University of Technology, has developed its first product, a mixed-signal IC-based detector in the sphere of medical diagnostics.
Essentially a wireless transceiver that offers early detection of some blood and heart diseases, ChipInvest...
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MOSCOW — Russia successfully launched a rocket on Tuesday (Dec. 25) carrying the last three satellites to complete a navigation system to rival America's GPS.
The military-run GLONASS mapping system works over most of Russia and is expected to cover the globe by the end of 2009, once all its 24 navigational satellites are operating.
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WiMax pioneer Intel is teaming up with Russian telecommunications operator Comstar to build a network that will cover the city of Moscow with the broadband wireless technology. The move is a prelude to spreading WiMax to other cities and regions in the Commonwealth of Independent States, which is made up of members of the former Soviet Union.
The ambitious...
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Rexam has finally got the go-ahead from Russian competition authorities for its acquisition of can maker Rostar, paving the way for expansion into one of the largest growth markets.
The Russian regulator had previously blocked the £149 million deal but now says UK-headquartered Rexam can proceed after it agreed not to increase drink can prices in...
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VW opens first Russian car plant
VW is just the latest foreign car firm to invest in Russia
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London’s West End, Mumbai, the City of London and Moscow are the top four most expensive office markets in the world, according to CB Richard Ellis Research’s semi-annual Global Market Rents survey. The report tracks the world’s most expensive markets as well as markets with the fastest growing rents over the past 12 months.
The ten ...
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Nestlé Rossiya, the leading food and beverage company in Russia, today announced the acquisition of Ruzskaya Confectionery Factory (RKF). This company offers consumers a wide range of chocolate products under the Сomilfo and Ruzanna brands. The acquisition price was not disclosed. Completion of the transaction is subject to the usual regulatory approvals...
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The positive development of the Russian market for packaging will last for years to come. The country’s economy continues to grow as does the consumerism of its people.
Demand for higher quality products and the packaging to match is unabated. This goes especially for food and beverages, confectionery, bakery products, cosmetics as well as non-food...
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Mondi Group ('Mondi') is pleased to announce that it has signed the delivery contract with Metso for a new lightweight recycled containerboard machine with a production capacity of up to 470,000 tonnes a year.
The signing of the contract is the latest stage in the project announced earlier in 2007 to invest in a new lightweight recycled containerboard machine...
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SCHOTT Pharmaceutical Packaging, a leading worldwide supplier of parenteral packaging to the pharmaceutical industry, has decided to build the company’s first production facility located in the Russian Federation. The new plant is expected to become operational in 2009. The facility will be based in Bor, a city located near the fourth largest city...
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In collaboration with a Russian partner, Germany's leading manufacturer of tin-plate packaging is building a facility in the greater Moscow region to produce tin-plate packaging for the industrial chemicals sector.
Following extensive market research, the management and supervisory board of the family-owned company, based in Öhringen in Germany’s...
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Slovenia has the highest mobile phone penetration in the Central Eastern European (CEE) at 92 percent, with Bulgaria having the lowest at 59 percent, according to research by GfK.
Croatia and serbia share first place for frequency of SMS communications at 5.4 messages per day. Slovenia is the leader for MMS penetration at 24 percent, with Russia and...
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Over 2.3 million tonnes of steel packaging were recycled in Europe last year. This represents an average recycling rate of 63% in the EU-25, an increase of 6% in recycled tonnage compared to 2004.
For the first time, recycling data gathered by APEAL covers 30 countries, namely the EU-25 as well as Romania, Bulgaria, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey and provides...
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new report has found that Bulgaria has the highest level of direct foreign investment to GDP in the entire Central and Eastern European region, helping to defy a decline in the sector throughout the CEE region.
The analysis by European bank group Unicredit, revealed that the country’s index for investment this year alone was just under 10 per cent,...
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Steel producer Arcelor Mittal is to further invest in its Polish operations in a bid to meet growing demand for its products within the region.
Steel is becoming increasingly important to food and beverage companies as part of an increasing focus by industry and governments for sustainable packaging.
With the construction of its new Steel Service centre...
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MUNICH, Germany — Chinese computer manufacturer Lenovo is planning to enter the consumer business. The company presently is in the process of finding the future production location for its desktop computers.
No decision has been taken yet as to the location for the desktop computer production. Presently, the company maintains a production site in...
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Moscow -- By pumping the proceeds of its oil and natural-resources boom into the high-tech industry, Russia is creating an electronics bonanza and an unprecedented mood of optimism. But the country has a history of failed intervention in its semiconductor and electronics industries, which until the last couple of years had stagnated for more than a decade....
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Immo Industry Group, the Belgian logistics and industrial real estate provider is about to invest EUR 60 million in an industrial park near Plovdiv, the second biggest city in Bulgaria. The new facility will be located on a site 5 km away from the city and will comprise high-tech storage facilities, production units, etc See our Construction section for...
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The Czech Republic could adopt the euro in 2012 if the government makes it its priority, Czech central bank (CNB) Vice-Governor Ludek Niedermayer said on Monday.
Niedermayer told the Reuters Central European Investment Summit it was necessary to set a euro entry date at least three years before the intended target date.
The government abandoned an earlier...
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Toshiba Corp. is utilizing Kobierzyce, Poland as the new site for a production and sales company for LCD TVs. See our Electronics section for companies ...
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An Estonian company has pitched a EUR 30 mln idea for a waste recycling plant to the local authorities in Bulgarian city of Pleven. Pleven regional governor Tsvetko Tsvetkov was quoted as saying by news agency BTA that has meet with an authorised representative of the Inwatec Baltic Service Ou to discuss the project. The plant will generate 1 mln euro in...
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Central and Eastern Europe are emerging as major growth hotspots for carrier Ethernet systems as incumbent and competitive carriers build out new networks and launch new residential and enterprise services.
The region, stretching east from the Czech Republic and including major growth markets such as Poland and Russia, is becoming increasingly attractive...
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Miskolc is the only county capital that has no water purification plant to guarantee a secure supply of drinking water, said Kálmán Katona, chairman of the Parliament's environmental committee at a press conference in Miskolc yesterday.
click on this link for water treatment companies...
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The European Commission said Wednesday it will examine if the Romanian government undersold a car plant to Ford Motor Co. last month and offered to write off its debts in return for Ford’s promise to keep on workers and turn out a specific number of vehicles.
If EU regulators find that Ford was planning to benefit from a debt write-off not offered...
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Chevrolet was the most popular car of foreign make sold in Russia from January to September of 2007. The overall sales reached 131,653 cars, including the sales of GM-AvtoVAZ venture.
Ford is the second leader with 120,410 and it is followed by Toyota with 110,484. Overall, the sales of foreign cars in Russia surged 63% on year to 1,137,238 in January...
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Palm oil giant Wilmar International has teamed up with two partners to expand into the robust edible oils industry in Russia, the company confirmed on Wednesday.
The firm listed on the Singapore Exchange said it agreed to establish a joint venture with Nizhny Novgorod Fats and Oils Group (NNFO) and Delta Exports. Wilmar, which owns plantations in Malaysia...
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PolyOne (Cleveland, Ohio / USA) has officially opened its color concentrates manufacturing facility in Kutno / Poland.
The unit, which has been built to supply eastern Europe’s growing markets, will produce the company’s colour range and can be expanded to handle other PolyOne products.
It will include a testing and development laboratory which...
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Gaz de France acquires a 59% stake in Depomures, the second-largest Romanian natural gas storage operator that runs the facility of Tirgo Mures in northern Romania.
This storage facility, located in a depleted natural gas field, can store up to 300 million cubic meter of natural gas; this capacity should reach 600 million cubic meter by 2011-2012. Gaz...
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MAN has officially opened a new assembly plant for heavy trucks in Niepolomice near Krakow in Poland.
The new plant will build MAN heavy trucks with gross weights over 16 tons, mostly from the TGA WW range. The first pre-series vehicles rolled off the production line in the summer. The OEM notes that the facility, which has now begun series production...
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LONDON — JSC Sitronics, a Russian provider of telecommunications and consumer equipment, has said it has started a project to develop chip manufacturing at the 65-nm to 45-nm nodes on 300-mm diameter wafers, according to a CNews report. Sitronics is the owner of chip maker JSC Mikro |