U.S. medical technology group Becton Dickinson & Co. (BD) is planning to expand production capacity at its syringe manufacturing plant in Tatabánya, Hungary.
The company is preparing to invest around 110 million euros ($116.5 million) in a project to extend the plant to accommodate additional production lines for prefilled syringes and plastic security devices.
This expansion project is still at the planning stage and construction is expected to begin between July and September 2017, according to Becton Dickinson Hungary's plant director Csaba Vecsernyés.
The expansion is scheduled to take around three years to complete with start up due to begin in 2020, he revealed at a news conference in Budapest.
Franklin Lakes, N.J.-based BD, which already employs 700 at Tatabánya, plans to create another 219 high added value jobs as a result of the project, Péter Szijjártó, Hungary's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade told the joint conference.
“This investment scheme shows that American capital has continued confidence in Hungary... The production of medical supplies in Hungary grew by 19 percent year on year during the first nine months of 2016, reaching 656 million euros ($694.9 million), in which Tatabánya played an important role,” Szijjártó said.
BD Hungary's plant director pointed out that the U.S. group has invested almost 236 million euros ($250 million) overall in ramping up production and creating jobs at the Tatabánya site since it was established in 2007.
Last year, BD built a new business branch there for its Biosciences division and laid the foundation stone for a production hall for the manufacture of research reagents used in pharmaceuticals in Tatabánya, Vecsernyés added.
In the year ending Sept. 30, 2015, BD Hungary posted after tax profits of 7 million euros ($7.4 million), up on the 2014 figure, on annual sales of 56 million euros ($59.3 million), according to company data.
