Valmet launches hiring offensive in Finland
Valmet Automotive is creating 1,000 new jobs in Finland in its vehicle and battery system production. A few weeks ago, the contract manufacturer and battery producer had already announced that it would also create new jobs and capacities in Germany.
First to the large-scale recruitment campaign in Finland: employees are being sought for production and administration at the Uusikaupunki and Salo sites. According to the company, they need 700 people for the Uusikaupunki site and 300 for the Salo site. In battery production, the main positions Valmet is looking to fill are in battery production, logistics and quality management. Besides, dozens of employees are recruited for product development, battery testing and business support tasks.
Valmet Automotive describes itself as a passenger car contract manufacturer and system supplier for battery systems development and production. In October, the Finnish company announced that it was withdrawing from traditional engineering services to focus more on e-mobility. In the course of this, the company is expanding its e-Mobility business activities in many places. Before the end of 2019, it founded both a fuel cell competence centre and a battery test centre in the German Bad Friedrichshall. In November 2020, Valmet also commissioned a battery test centre in Weihenbronn, Baden-Württemberg.
In addition to Bad Friedrichshall and Weihenbronn, Valmet Automotive conducts battery testing in Uusikaupunki. The site in the south of Finland has so far been known primarily for its vehicle plant, where Valmet builds vehicles for other companies as a contract manufacturer – including the A-Class and the GLC for Mercedes-Benz. Based on the car plant, the company has also been building battery systems there “for years”, but so far only in small series focusing on industrial applications. That is soon to change: At the beginning of January 2021, Valmet started constructing a battery factory at the site. Mass production of high-voltage systems is to start there as early as the second half of 2021. According to the manufacturer, it has already won two European premium manufacturers as customers for the plant.
Another battery assembly plant is located in Salo, Finland. Series production will start there in autumn 2019. Only a few weeks ago, Valmet announced that it would also increase production capacity there.
So while the production of the battery systems mainly occurs in the Finnish plants, the internationally positioned engineering team also has a strong base in Germany – as can be seen, among other things, from the maintenance of the above-mentioned test competence centres at German locations. A month ago, Valmet Automotive announced that it would also create new jobs for engineers, technicians and various support functions in Munich and Friedrichshall.
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