Bombardier Invests 250 Million PLN in Wrocław Production Facility Development

The company Bombardier Transportation Polska, specialising in solutions for rail and air transport, has invested over 250 million PLN in the expansion of its Wrocław production facility. The new industrial shed will deliver high speed train bodies for the German railway company Deutsche Bahn. Production is to be launched in early November this year. 100 new workplaces are to be created thanks to the investment, thus increasing the employment volume in the company’s branch to 800. The Wrocław facility was Poland's first to join the global elite of companies involved in construction of high speed trains. The new investment entails not only the development of a new industrial shed, but, first of all, transfer to Poland of state-of-the-art technologies including 3D laser welding, so far not applied in Polish railway industry. The investor plans to extend cooperation with Polish partners and suppliers. Bombardier Transportation Polska in Wrocław is one of the oldest production facilities supplying railway rolling stock in Europe and Poland. So far, it has been known first and foremost as a manufacturer of TRAXX and E464 engine bodies for Italy and heavy cargo engines for the Swedish market. The production facility has delivered to this day over 16,000 bogie frames and nearly 2,400 of engine bodies. Last year, the facility started production of passenger train bodies. Part of the company's contract for Hamburg is executed in Wrocław, i.e. production and delivery of a total of 180 suburban train bodies for Hamburg's S-Bahn in the years 2016-2018. Bombardier's Wrocław facility supplies bodies for TRAXX and E464 series engines, as well as sub-assemblies for other rail vehicles produced by the company. The Katowice facility's production is mostly oriented towards the Polish market, while 100% of the Wrocław unit's output is exported. The expansion of Bombardier's production facility is another big investment completed in Lower Silesia over past months. In October, LG Chem announced its decision on the commencement of the development of Europe's first production facility specialised in mass production of batteries for electric cars. The 1.3 billion PLN project will be located in the administrative district of Kobierzyce near Wrocław. Its results will include over 700 new workplaces. In Jawor, the conglomerate Daimler is to develop Poland's first production facility supplying Mercedes engines. The minimum investment outlay will exceed 2 billion PLN. A few hundred people will be hired for the investor's new facility. On the other hand, Toyota has informed that over the period of two years it will funnel 650 million PLN to the expansion of its production facility in Wałbrzych and Jelcz-Laskowice, where new engines and gears for hybrid propulsion systems will be manufactured. Talks about these investments in the automotive sector were initiated by Deputy Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.