< Previous60 MAY 2019 SI T E S E L E C T IO Ncontinuing. Upon completion, the facility will consist of 120,000 sq. ft. of warehouse space including kitting areas and offices. The $27.1 million plant investment is just one of several automotive sector investments popping up throughout the county.‘A Competitive Place to Do Business’When asked why Daimler chose to invest heavily into its truck plant in Cleveland, plant manager Erik Johnson says, “Rowan County is definitely pro-business. Its leadership and the economic development team at RowanWorks regularly meet with Daimler Trucks North America management to proactively identify needs, challenges and solutions to produce a world-class product in a world-class facility by world-class employees. That coordinated dialogue truly embodies a public-private partnership that ensures success for all stakeholders: the company, the workers, the county and the state. More importantly, it drives investment to Rowan County because it is a competitive place to do business.”Johnson says Daimler’s investment into the Cleveland plant would not be possible without the workforce training assistance his company receives. “Working in partnership with RowanWorks, North Carolina has customized training programs to meet specific needs of employers like Daimler Trucks North America,” he says. “Its NCWorks Apprenticeship Program, NCWorks Incumbent Worker Training grants, and on-the-job training programs all complement those customized training programs to ensure current and potential Daimler Trucks North America employees have critical skills necessary to compete in the global economy.”The Cleveland Truck Manufacturing Plant was established in 1989 and is the largest Freightliner Trucks assembly plant in the U.S., producing several Class 8 truck models including the Cascadia, Argosy, Coronado, Columbia, Western Star 4700, Western Star 4900 and Cascadia Natural Gas. Freightliner sells over 190,000 trucks a year and ranks as the top-selling semi-truck company in America.Freightliner’s investments are being fueled not only by Rowan County’s cost-competitive business climate, but also by increasing demand for big rigs. Statista forecasts that Class 8 truck sales in the U.S. will hit almost 220,000 units in 2020. Meanwhile, Freight Transportation Research Associates Inc. (FTR) raised its North American Class 8 truck factory shipments forecast to 350,000 units, which would represent a one-year rise of about 8%. Experts say this will be the best year for truck shipments on the continent since 2006.Other critical cogs in the truck manufacturing supply chain in Rowan County are benefiting from this bump. Among them is Agility Fuel Solutions, which consolidated five plants across North America into a new operation in Salisbury about four years ago. The $20 million investment created 200,000 sq. ft. and about 180 new jobs.“We are very close to Daimler and do a lot of business on their Freightliner trucks,” says Bryan Mewhort, director of operations at Agility Fuel Solutions. “Our new powertrain division in Salisbury is now centrally located to Freightliner and Thomasville Bus in High Point, as well as Volvo Trucks further north [in Pulaski County, Virginia].”Agility could be positioned for additional growth; it has just been acquired by Norway-based Hexagon, one of the firm’s principal investors.“We have seen tremendous growth over the past nine months,” says Mewhort. “Current back orders are as strong as they have ever been. We have seen a lot of adoption of clean fuel by large fleets. More of them are moving into the clean fuel space.”Custom Training Fills GapsAgility supplies compressed natural gas systems for clean-burning fleets. It also supplies propane fuel systems. Alternative fuel is currently 1.5 to 2 percent of the truck market, but it’s growing rapidly, Mewhort notes.“We increased our staff from 115 to 180 in 2018, mostly in direct labor and material handling Daimler Trucks’ global network includes Torc Robotics in Blacksburg, Virginia (two hours north of Rowan County), where Daimler Trucks in March acquired a majoritystake. Torc CEO Michael Fleming (left) is seen here with Daimler Trucks North America CEO Roger Nielsen.Photo courtesy of Daimler62 MAY 2019 SI T E S E L E C T IO Nareas,” he says. “We enjoy an ample supply of workers here in Rowan County. We get numerous resumes for positions whenever we post our job openings online. Rowan-Cabarrus Community College has been very helpful in providing training for us. ey provide all di erent kinds of training and can even customize training to t our needs.”Below-average costs of doing business and low cost of living make the area attractive, he adds. “Plus, Rowan County has been extremely supportive of our growth. e company has been very happy to have relocated to this area. It has been a very positive experience.” ey are not alone. New York Air Brake, a manufacturer of freight and locomotive air brake control systems, began operations earlier this year in its new Summit Corporate Center facility. e ,-sq.-ft. plant creates new jobs in Rowan County. Amrep, a California rm which manufactures garbage trucks, announced recently that it is less than days away from expanding its production capacity by opening its second facility in Rowan to serve the company’s East Coast customers. Rod Crider, president and CEO of the Salisbury-Rowan Economic Development Commission, says that none of these expansions would have occurred without a willingness by community leaders to embrace change on the heels of the historic recession.“ e impact was deeply felt with the lost of some key employers and the resulting increase in unemployment rates and the number of persons living in poverty,” says Crider. “It did, however, jolt the community into action, leading to the development of programs to address the structural issues and increased collaboration among organizations to promote economic growth.”Being on Interstate between Charlotte and Greensboro puts Rowan in the center of a prime Southeastern distribution corridor, something that manufacturers and logistics operators covet. “Our strategic location between these two major metro areas provides unparalleled access to workers in numbers not found anywhere else in North Carolina,” says Crider of the -million-resident market that o ers . million workers. “We’re centrally located on the East Coast and midway between Atlanta and Washington, D.C. We’ve taken advantage of that location on I- by developing industrial parks with easy access to the interstate, developing workforce programs and communicating our resulting cost advantage to those in the industry.”‘Be Part of Something Real’Manpower reinforced these assets when it released its second-quarter labor forecast in mid-March, showing nearby Greensboro as one of the nation’s hottest markets for job seekers. It also forecast transportation and utilities, and wholesale and retail trade, as two of the strongest jobs sectors — both of which translate into increased demand for trucks.County Commission Chairman Edds says it’s important for Rowan County to stick to its mantra of “Be an Original” if it wants to see this turnaround continue. “We watch a lot of communities trying to copy one another, some even trying to be something they’re not,” he says. “We believe that people and companies want to be part of something real, something genuine, something original.”In Rowan, that means providing the kind of business climate and lifestyle that growing rms in the truck manufacturing supply chain want. Working in partnership with RowanWorks, North Carolina has customized training programs to meet speci c needs of employers like Daimler Trucks North America.” — Erik Johnson, Plant Manager, Cleveland Truck Manufacturing Plant, Daimler Trucks North America64 MAY 2019 SI T E S E L E C T IO N64 MAY 2019 SI T E S E L E C T IO NIndustries transition quickly up the value chain in this dynamic market.Hungary’s % corporate income tax rate is part of this Eastern Europe economy’s economic development story, and recent inward investment numbers suggest a best seller is in the works. e past ve years have seen successfully negotiated projects, more than € billion in capital investment and more than , new jobs. What’s more, was the fth consecutive year to break all previous investment promotion records in Hungary. e positive decisions for Hungary represent € . billion of investment — a % increase over the previous year — and more than , new jobs were created. Moreover, the ratio of projects representing a high local value add has increased signi cantly, in line with the FDI strategy of ( ) focusing on quality instead of quantity of investment projects and ( ) transitioning from the “Made in Hungary” era to the “Invented in Hungary” period. by MARK ARENDmar k .ar end@ site s ele c tion.c om64 MAY 2019 SI T E S E L E C T IO NThe Megyeri Bridge links Buda and Pest across the Danube River.Photos courtesy of the Hungarian Investment Promotion AgencyINVESTMENT PROFILE:HUNGARY S I T E S E L E C T I O N MAY 2019 65 S I T E S E L E C T I O N S I T E S E L E C T I O N MAY 2019 65 S I T E S E L E C T I O N In R&D, software development, engineering and business services, the Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency (HIPA) has seen a % growth in the number of successfully negotiated projects, to , creating close to , new jobs in these high-value-added service areas. Also on the rise is the number of technology-intensive projects that do not necessarily create new jobs, but bring new technologies and increase productivity.The Proving Ground e fact that Hungary is the only country in Europe outside of Germany where all three premium German OEMs — Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz — are present underlines the importance of the automotive industry to Hungary today. Hungary now has eight OEMs on board. Five of them (Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Opel, Suzuki) are engaged in manufacturing activities, and three (Ford, Jaguar Land Rover, Nissan) are active in engineering or business services.By sectors, the automotive industry is leading the project counts: investor decisions imply a capital investment of € , million that created nearly , new jobs for the Hungarian economy. is sector is trending to higher-value-add projects. Ten of the di erent automotive projects focus exclusively on research and development and engineering services. Audi, AVL, Bosch, Continental, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) and thyssenkrupp all have signi cant R&D operations in Hungary, where engineers develop the software and hardware components of future technologies. Speaking of which, the future of mobility can be glimpsed today in Hungary, speci cally at the -acre proving ground in Zalaegerszeg, which will open soon for testing conventional and driverless cars.Meanwhile, electric drivetrains and e-mobility technologies are on the rise, and Hungary is partnering with three important Asian battery manufacturers. Samsung SDI, SK Innovation and GS Yuasa have chosen Hungary as their European manufacturing center to supply EV batteries to their European partners. ese investments represent almost € million in alone. e biggest engine production factory of the world, the Audi Hungaria plant in Győr, has started production of the drivetrain for the rst purely electric Audi model, the E-tron SUV. Capital investment into the Hungarian electronics sector reached a high of projects in , driven by e-mobility related deals. e business services sector (BSC) won projects. Hungary has one of the most advanced BSC markets in the Central Eastern European region, and its dynamic development characteristic of the past two decades has not lost momentum. Currently there are about business service centers operating in Hungary, employing approximately , typically Gen Y workers with a degree and foreign language skills. Centers can provide their services in ve languages on average, contributing to a great extent to the fact that professionals can nd international career development opportunities in Hungary. High salaries, rapid advancement, promotion opportunities and broad use of foreign languages o er an attractive alternative for young people today, including in the long term.About % of investments went to countryside locations. is shows that the di erent regions in Hungary are prepared to host signi cant investments. e well-developed motorway and telecoms network, the business-oriented local municipalities, the dual education system based on the German model and the creative and quali ed labor force will continue to drive investors’ interest in Hungary. This Investment Pro le was prepared under the auspices of HIPA, the Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency. For more information, please visit www.hipa.hu.The Danube is the second longest river in Europe.66 MAY 2019 SI T E S E L E C T IO NB2I: 2019 GLOBAL BEST T O INVESTby ADAM JONE S -K ELLE Yadamjk@ site s ele c tion.c omThe U.S. has far and away the hottest economy anywhere in the world.” So said U.S. President Donald Trump in his February State of the Union address.While it’s no exaggeration to say that the US economy is hot, Trump’s boast is. China, India and other emerging economies still far outpace the U.S. And though America is rightly pleased with its surging economy, there is an undertone of nervousness — nervousness fueled by ill-conceived trade wars and the long-predicted slowdown in China, and because the EU continues to be, well, the EU. e economic tsunami that China surfed to wealth and power is subsiding into a swell. e economy is still vibrant, but % growth is likely just a cherished Chinese memory. Places whose economies are most reliant on trade with China, i.e. most of the known universe, will slow along with her, most notably Europe.Adding to the concern by subtraction, foreign direct investment (FDI) across the world is tumbling. According to the latest UNCTAD Global Investment Trends Monitor, it sagged by nearly % last year to an estimated $. trillion. In , it was $. trillion. In it was $. trillion. Do the math. e drop, the third in as many years, brought FDI fl ows back to the low point reached after the global fi nancial crisis. e decline was concentrated in developed countries, where infl ows fell by as much as %.If America’s economy is on fi re, Europe’s may be fl aming out. According to UNCTAD, the FDI decline was exacerbated by corporate income tax reform in “(continued on p. 74)Number of ProjectsAmount of Investment S I T E S E L E C T I O N MAY 2019 67020406080100120140MozambiqueGhanaEgyptZambiaAlgeriaKenyaNamibiaRwandaSouth AfricaMoroccoAfricaTop 10 countries by investment value per capita0100020003000400050006000MozambiqueEthiopiaGhanaZambiaRwandaAlgeriaEgyptKenyaMoroccoSouthAfrica061218243036AfricaTop 10 countries by total amount of investment and investment projectsInvestment Value (in US$ Millions)Number of Projects 1. South Africa 2. Morocco 3. Kenya 4. Egypt 5. Algeria 6. Rwanda 7. Zambia 8. Ghana 9. Ethiopia 10. Mozambique 1. Morocco 2. South Africa 3. Rwanda 4. Namibia 5. Kenya 6. Algeria 7. Zambia 8. Egypt 9. Ghana 10. MozambiqueRankings and charts based on data from Conway Projects Database; World Bank Doing Business 2019; WEF Global Competitiveness Report and historical dataset; UNDP Human Development Index (see p. 83 for methodology). best to invest per capita overall best to investNext >