Where the automakers relocate, the Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers to the industry are compelled to follow, and companies have opened new plants in Slovakia in recent years for supplying nonwovens and related products include Lear and Johnson Controls, Carcoustics, HP Pelzer, Faurecia, Johns Manville and Toyota Boshoku.
In January 2004, PSA Peugeot Citroën selected Slovakia as the site for a €700 million central European plant in Trnava, some 45 km north of the capital Bratislava. The Peugeot factory is now producing 300,000 cars a year and employs 3,500 people, making it one of the company’s biggest plants.
At Volkswagen Slovakia in Bratislava, International Automotive Components (formerly part of Lear) makes door panels for the VW Touareg in the same building where Johnson Controls sews seats. Johnson Controls also has a seat assembly facility within Skoda’s Mladá Boleslav factory. In 2000, Johnson Controls built a US$20 million factory in Slovakia.
Volkswagen is now Slovakia’s largest employer and its main exporter, but the country received a further boost when, after Peugeot’s announcement, Korea’s Kia and Hyundai said it would follow suit with a €1.4 billion plant for the production of 200,000 vehicles a year from 2007, and then French automotive interiors maker Faurecia unveiled plans to invest US$36 million in a new plant in Slovakia to produce bumpers and instrument panels for PSA Peugeot Citroën.
During 2009, Volkswagen also decided its four new small family cars would be buit in Slovakia.
The first vehicles are due to roll off the Volkswagen production lines in Slovakia at the beginning of 2011, for delivery to customers throughout the world. Three and five-door models will then be available for the Volkswagen, Seat and Skoda brands. The production decision will safeguard about 1,500 jobs at the Bratislava plant and involves a new €308 million investment there.
In the automotive industry, the necessary weight of certain vehicle parts has increased due to the demand for more safety, as well as enhanced comfort and functionality.
But this additional weight has to be compensated for in other areas – for every extra airbag that is integrated, and for every new electrical feature incorporated, a corresponding weight saving is required somewhere.
It is for this reason that the use of aluminium and glass or natural fibre-based composites have been the subject of such intensive R&D efforts by vehicle makers and their suppliers in recent years.
Components made of nonwovens also have a significant role to play in achieving the correct balance between overall weight and added features, and notably in the areas of thermal and acoustic insulation. This is one of the reasons that the use of nonwovens in cars continues to increase, as will be amply demonstrated at the forthcoming INDEX11 show, which takes place in Geneva, Switzerland from April 12-15th next year.
Of other Slovakian end-users of nonwovens, Celltex, headquartered in Ivanka pri Dunaji, was established in 1992 as the first company in the country with a production programme for feminine hygiene.
In 1996 a new production plant was built and a production line for ultra thin lady sanitary towels was introduced leading to the production of panty shields and other products. In addition, the company also produces table napkins, toilet paper, handkerchiefs, kitchen towels and hygienic cotton wool products.
The company’s Pamela feminine hygiene brand currently has a 20% share of the Slovak market and its Vata brand covers cotton wool, cosmetic tampons and cotton buds made from cellulouse and cotton.
Celltex also produces femcare products under private label for shopping chains in France, Italy, Germany, Greece, Russia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland, Switzerland and Slovakia itself.
Among the country’s dedicated nonwovens producers, Texilan in Bratislava manufactures 100% polypropylene spunbonded and needled geotextiles under the Tatratex brand. These are supplied in the weight range of 180-1,500 gsm and widths of up to 3.5 metres
Texiplast, at Ivanka pri Nitre, is now another producer of spunbonded geotextiles, with long experience of working with polypropelene and technical fabrics and in close cooperation with sister company Kordárna.
The production of fabric-reinforced geosynthetics at Kordárna began at the start of the 1990s based on the experience of production and use of geosynthetics of Austria’s Polyfelt (now part of the TenCate Group).
At present, the company produces a complete range of cord-reinforced geomeshes, geocomposites and geotextiles based on polyester and polypropylene and sold throughout Europe.
