June 14 (SeeNews) - Automotive parts supplier Continental Romania said on Friday it is investing 27 million euro ($30.4 million) to expand its office building in Iasi.
The new building will have eight floors and a total built-up area of over 21,000 square metres, Continental said in a press release. About 400 new parking spaces will be created.
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The works will be completed by March 2020.
The building was designed for a capacity of up to 1,700 seats, as well as a testing and validation area for the products developed within the company.
"The Continental Research and Development Center in Iasi has grown from 30 people in 2006 to over 1,900 employees at the end of 2018. This development has come as a result of the growing number of projects in which our colleagues are involved. The investment demonstrates the importance the company gives to the engineering center in Iasi," Continental Iasi manager Marian Petrescu said.
Between 1999 and 2018, Continental invested about 1.6 billion euro in its activities in Romania. All five Continental divisions are represented in Romania. Continental owns seven production units and four engineering centers in Timisoara, Sibiu, Carei, Nadab, Brasov and Iasi. Continental is a partner in two joint ventures in Iasi and Slatina and has a tire distribution center in Bucharest.
At the end of 2018, Continental had more than 20,000 employees, one third of which are engineers and IT engineers in R & D centers, and will continue to employ on the basis of future projects.
In April, Continental said it is investing 1.9 million euro in a fully automated storage system at its electronic components plant in Timisoara.
Also in April, Continental said it has invested 1.7 million lei ($400,000/357,000 euro) in an X-ray industrial scanner at its ContiTech facility in Timisoara.
($=0.8872 euro)