Autoliv said it has opened a plant in Poland to produce seat
belts. "The new plant meets our need for additional production
capacity as well as our aim of reducing costs by moving labor-intensive
production to low-labor-cost countries," said Lars Westerberg,
Autoliv's President and Chief Executive Officer.
"Over the past three years, we have moved more than 5,000 jobs
to those countries," he added. "As a result, we currently have
close to 30 percent of our employees in low-labor-cost countries,
compared to less than 10 percent in 1999. At the same time, we have
grown also in high-cost countries by investing in new sophisticated,
high-value-added safety systems."
The new plant will add almost 5 percent to Autoliv's European
seat belt capacity, the company said. The number of employees will be
doubled from the current level of nearly 200 people.
The plant will produce seat belts as a sub-contractor to Autoliv
Germany, delivering mainly to BMW, DaimlerChrysler, Ford, Opel and
Volkswagen.
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