Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has said that Hungarian industry is clearly reviving: “It is trying its wings”.
The Prime Minister stated this in Tiszaújváros on Tuesday, at the inauguration ceremony of MOL’s butadiene extraction plant; he said that, thanks to MOL, Hungary’s chemical industry is being rebuilt.
At the event it was also announced that MOL and the Japanese JSR Corporation plan to build a synthetic rubber production factory in Tiszaújváros by 2017. Mr. Orbán said that this agreement testifies to the fact that Hungarian industry and MOL – its most important player – are strong enough to be the equal partners of large international corporations. “Those who enter into alliance with MOL also enter into a strong and successful alliance with Hungary and the Hungarian people”, he said.
In the Prime Minister’s view, an economy is stable and crisis-resistant if its strength is simultaneously derived from large international companies and Hungarian companies, but for a long time Hungary had lacked the latter: for quite some time “we were lopsided”, he said.
Beyond doubt, however, MOL is a Hungarian industrial corporation which is capable of implementing job-creating projects worth billions of forints, Mr. Orbán highlighted. With reference to the butadiene plant, which was built in two years, he said that this factory will be able to supply raw material to all tyre manufacturers operational in Hungary. “This project […] fits into the system of the Hungarian economy like a previously missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle”, he said.
He further stressed that “Together with the other Central European economies, today Hungary is often mentioned as one of the countries capable of revving up the European economy’s stalling engine”. Hungary is stable, the business environment is very conducive to developments, and the Government supports Hungarian businesses growing into global corporations, the Prime Minister said. He also highlighted that the country can only grow successfully with a well-qualified Hungarian labour force.
At the ceremony Zsolt Hernádi, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the MOL Group, said that the company estimates that the butadiene plant in Tiszaújváros will increase the MOL Group’s profitability by some HUF 6 to 10 billion annually.
It will be possible to manufacture five million vehicle tyres per year from the butadiene extracted in Tiszaújváros. Butadiene is a colourless and easily liquefiable gas, which is a by-product of ethylene production.
Regarding the synthetic rubber factory, he said that its construction will cost approximately twice as much as the butadiene plant, the cost of which was HUF 35 billion.
The combined cost of the two projects in Tiszaújváros represents some one hundred billion forints, placing them among Central Europe’s largest industrial developments, Mr. Hernádi stressed.
He went on to say that over the past 15 years his company had invested more than HUF 1,850 billion in Hungary; this had been its contribution to the growth of the Hungarian economy. “We do what we judge to be right. Regardless of changing winds in the sector, we consciously develop our company group”, he said.
At the event – which was also attended by Junichi Kosuge, Japan’s Ambassador to Hungary – Koichi Kawasaki, Senior Managing Executive Officer of the Japanese JSR Corporation, said that the demand in Europe for fuel-efficient tyres is increasing, due to environmentally aware consumers.
In his view, Tiszaújváros is an excellent site for the synthetic rubber production project, which will be one of the most successful in the history of their company.