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Magazine
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Mitsubishi: Twice in SlanýWhen they say "Mitsubishi" in the Czech Republic, most people think of the high quality and relatively expensive make of cars with the "three diamonds" as its symbol. It is therefore not surprising that only about 750 people in the Czech Republic bought cars from this manufacturer in the first nine months of this year. But this association isn't true everywhere. When they say "Mitsubishi" in Slaný, a town of 16,000 located 32 kilometers northwest of Prague, everyone thinks about several manufacturing halls in which two companies with Japanese capital employ more than 200 people. The first of these halls was built on the edge of Slaný in October of 2000 after the firm Mitsubishi Electric Corporation decided to invest in the Czech Republic. From the very beginning, the Japanese viewed Slaný's northern industrial park as the most attractive location from a logistical point of view because they were planning to export most of their production to Western Europe. The initial plan was to invest a total of 1.24 billion crowns (US$32 million). The Czech firm, which is known as Mitsubishi Electric Automotive Czech, manufactures car alternators, starters and electronic control panels for personal automobiles. This company now employs about ninety people, but this number should go up. The annual capacity of the factory in 2005 is expected to be half a million alternators and starters, with all of the production destined for European and Japanese automobile manufacturers located throughout Europe. The firm Mitsubishi Electric was granted investment incentives by the Czech government in the form of reduced value-added taxes, financial support for the creation of new jobs and financial support for the retraining of workers. In return, Mitsubishi promised that the investment would remain in the Czech Republic for at least five years and that they would create a specific number of new jobs. The decision to locate a second major investment in the Slaný industrial park - also focused on the manufacture of automobile parts - was clearly based on their satisfaction with the local workforce and the support received from the municipal authorities. This added the manufacturing of power steering control units and printed circuits. This project is a joint venture of Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (90%) and another Japanese producer, Koyo Seiko (10%). Representatives of these firms from the Land of the Rising Sun announced this project at the end of 2002 and have promised to invest almost half a billion crowns and create 150 new jobs. They are currently employing 143 people but the number of employees is continuing to grow with the expansion of production to a number of shifts. This joint venture, Electric Powersteering Components Europe, is operating this year at full production and a future annual production of 1.26 million components is planned, all destined for export. These factories in Slaný use very modern semi-automated and fully automated assembly lines. It required tens of millions of crowns from both the national municipal budgets to set up the industrial park in Slaný. Preparations began in the year 2000 as a result of the initial Mitsubishi Electric project and one of the most difficult aspects was the purchasing of all the land needed for the park. In the end the town council was successful and they are very optimistic, convinced that the successes of Mitsubishi Electric will attract other Japanese investors to Slaný. |
