Visteon Goes Eastern European

Visteon Corp. has begun producing automotive components at its new manufacturing plant in the Slovak Republic. The company’s investment in the Nitra plant was announced in October 2004.
The facility manufactures interior and climate control products and gives Visteon a manufacturing base to serve the rapidly expanding automotive market in Slovakia and Eastern Europe. The Nitra plant supplies door panels for PSA Peugeot-Citroen’s new Peugeot 207. Later this year, the facility is scheduled to begin producing climate control components for the Kia Accent.
The Nitra facility houses state-of-the-art injection moulding equipment and is designed for in-sequence production and shipping of door panels to PSA’s assembly plant in Trnava, located 17 miles (45 kilometres) from Nitra.
The facility is 145,313 square feet (13,500 square meters) and sits on 861,113 square feet (80,000 square meters) of land.
Visteon is preparing for the opening of another manufacturing facility in Slovakia, located in Dubnica.
Scheduled to start production in December 2006, it will be a smaller facility designed to deliver climate control components on a just-in-time basis to Kia.
Visteon expects to employ up to 400 people in Slovakia when the facilities reach full capacity in 2007.
“As vehicle manufacturers expand to competitive-cost locations in Eastern Europe, it is important for Visteon to align its manufacturing footprint to support our customers,” said Herve Montloin, Visteon plant manager in the Slovak Republic. “One of Visteon’s strengths is its balanced global manufacturing footprint, and adding production capacity in competitive locations such as the Slovak Republic is a key element of the global strategy for our core product groups.”
Visteon currently operates 13 technical, manufacturing, sales and service facilities in five Eastern European countries. Visteon has plants in Czech Republic (Novy Jicin, Rychvald and Hluk), Hungary (Szekesfehervar), Poland (Praszka and Poznan), Slovak Republic and Turkey for the manufacture and assembly of automotive components including climate control, interiors, electronics, lighting and other products.
Visteon Corp designs, engineers and manufactures climate, interior, electronic and lighting products for vehicle manufacturers, and also provides a range of products and services to aftermarket customers. With corporate offices in Van Buren Township, Mich. (U.S.); Shanghai, China; and Kerpen, Germany; the company has more than 170 facilities in 24 countries and employs approximately 50,000 people.