Germany’s Leoni AG reports that the company’s new plant in Kraljevo, which represents its fourth plant in Serbia, should be ready to start ramping up production of wiring systems for Mercedes by the end of January.

A press release said that the 60 million euro investment in Kraljevo is being made in steps, and that the current stage accounts for 6,500 sq m of production space, with some 150 engineers, technicians and workers in the production. The site will not be fully completed until the end of the first quarter of 2020, at which time the plant will be 45,000 sq m. By 2023, it should be in full capacity, employing around 5,000 workers.

The release said that plant, described as the first new one built in Kraljevo in 30 years, will be the company’s largest plant in Serbia. Leoni has been operating in Serbia since 2009, when the German-based company opened its first factory in Prokuplje. In 2014, a factory was opened in Malosiste and in 2017, one in Nis. All the plants manufacture wiring systems for producers of premium cars.

Since setting up its business, Leoni Serbia, in 2009, the company has invested approximately 90 million euros in its facilities, machinery and staff training, the release said. It currently employs around 6,000 people in the country, and once the Kraljevo plant is at full capacity it should have 10,000 workers, at which point Leoni expects to be the largest manufacturing-industry employer in Serbia.

"Serbia has great potential from the human capital point of view and a work culture and ethics that we really appreciate," the release. Over the past 10 years, more than 52 million euros in taxes and contributions have been made to the Republic of Serbia. "We are pleased to be developing our business in Serbia further."

Of note, Leoni AG this year is scheduled to see the opening of a new plant it announced last June in Bulgaria. That plant, which would bring 2,000 jobs to the northern city of Pleven in Bulgaria, would cost an estimated €32 million investment. The plant would be Leoni’s first in the country. It is scheduled to be fully operational by 2020, according to one report citing Bulgaria’s Economy Ministry.

Germany’s Leoni and Diehl have agreed to a strategic partnership covering battery systems for electric and hybrid vehicles.

Leoni is a global provider of energy and data management solutions in the automotive sector and other industries. Diehl is a significant partner to the automotive industry with its innovative solutions for hybrid and electric vehicles. The two companies will in future be working together on energy and data transmission as well as heat management across the entire value creation process. The partnership’s aim is to build on the skills of the two companies and to offer customers system solutions for electromobility from a single source.
Compared with the automotive business as a whole, the market for electrically powered vehicles promises disproportionately strong growth rates averaging more than 30% a year globally through to 2025. Instead of individual components, the carmakers are furthermore increasingly calling for all-in solutions and systems. Leoni and Diehl will be addressing both trends by working together.

“We are confident that we will be offering our customers new, attractive solutions in the growing market for alternative drive systems,” said Martin Stüttem, a member of Leoni AG’s Board of Directors with responsibility for the Wiring Systems Division.
In October, Leoni showcased technologies for autonomous driving at the International Suppliers Fair, where it focused on connectivity, not just for a car, but between vehicles themselves as well as to their surroundings. That requires high rates of data transmission, for which Leoni’s Dacar Ethernet cables offer bidirectional transfer of 100 Mbps and 1 Gbps (Ethernet standard).

Leoni has developed an Ethernet cable design with optimized materials to achieve high conductor symmetry even when exposed to vibration, humidity or dirt. Interference from the outside or mutual impairment of cables running next to each other can thereby be reduced.