Edition 12/2020

Thuringia Focus.

Development center of China-based Desay SV Automotive Group is built in Weimar

Thuringia has become a bridgehead for Antennentechnik Bad Blankenburg (ATTB) and its parent, Desay SV Auto- motive, to expand into Europe. ATTB will soon be operating a development The construction of the battery gigafactory of the Chinese global market leader CATL in the industrial area “Erfurter Kreuz” in Arnstadt/Ichtershausen is progressing steadily. Photo: LEG Thüringen center in Weimar-Legefeld where 20 to 30 highly trained experts will design solutions for smart antenna technol- Thuringia remains drawing card ogy, electronics and software for the car of the future. ATTB plans to outfit car models with the products it devel- despite COVID-19 ops – from smart antennas to vehicle electronics and software from Desay, Investors continue to pour into Thur- struction is the new Daimler Truckstore its Chinese parent. ATTB used to spe- ingia, even in today’s turbulent times. facility in the Erfurter Kreuz industrial cialize in supplying auto parts for com- “Businesses from all over the world, in- area, while Papacks Sales GmbH, a pack- mercial and special purpose vehicles, cluding our state, continue to expand and aging specialist, is building a gigafactory but the new development center marks relocate to Thuringia,” said Economics in Arnstadt/Ichtershausen. Other expan- its entry into the carmaking market. It Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee. “We’re op- sion projects are continuing full steam, is currently constructing the facility in timistic about the future seeing how such such as the one from CATL, a Chinese close cooperation with LEG. The for- encouraging signals are being sent out battery manufacturer, and Marquardt, an mer factory site is thus being expand- even during the COVID-19 era!” auto parts supplier from the southeast ed into ATTB’s future state-of-the-art German state of Baden-Württemberg. research and technology campus – a The State Development Corporation of This summer also saw the launch of the place where big-name manufacturers’ Thuringia (LEG) has enjoyed healthy busi- Battery Innovation and Technology Center pre-production vehicles, a.k.a. “devel- ness this calendar year. It managed 35 ex- (BITC) project – a center of innovation and opment mules”, will drive in and out. pansion and relocation projects, involv- excellence that is directly related to the (hw) ing around 2,000 new jobs and approx. CATL investment and that will invest even 460 million euros in investment commit- more energy into the vibrant exchange of ments. “We have attractive sites with ideas between industry players and re- fully developed free plots and excellent searchers in Thuringia. traffic links and can support investors with one-stop service, from establishing All companies in Thuringia, including their first site in Thuringia to expanding the newcomers, will benefit from addi- their current operations,” said Andreas tional digital services which have been Krey, Managing Director of LEG. One of the developed by LEG. These include the dig- most recent projects officially kicked off ital company database “Local Sourcing”, in mid-November in Weimar, where Anten- which enables companies to quickly find nentechnik Bad Blankenburg, a member new suppliers, business partners or cus- of the Desay SV corporate group in China, tomers in the face of interrupted value The foundation stone for the new development center is will be operating a development center chains. (hw) laid. Photo: Antennentechnik Bad Blankenburg GmbH for the car of the future. Also under con- News PAPACKS invests in production of

Röchling Group invests 50 million eu- eco-friendly packaging in Arnstadt ros in southern Thuringia

Plastics processor Röchling Medical Papacks Sales GmbH has replaced will be the largest production facility has set its sights on expansion: The 2.5 million kilograms of plastic – for molded paper fiber parts in Europe. company is investing 50 million euros the weight of ten jumbo jets – by The Thuringian factory will be a model in a factory building and production making sustainable packaging. The for future plants, announced the com- equipment in Neuhaus am Rennweg Cologne-based firm will soon be pany. Papacks already has facilities in in southern Thuringia, adding around manufacturing in Arnstadt, in central Appingedam (NL), Cologne, Munich, 30 new jobs to its current payroll of Thuringia: It is creating 20 jobs and Prague and Frankfurt/Main. Most of 350. Röchling made this move to set investing over ten million euros in its parts are made from eco-friend- up its Medical division for further the new factory. ly molded pulp. Sustainability is the growth. The specialist develops and thread running through the company’s manufactures high-quality plastics The topping-out ceremony for “Giga- wide product range, from transport products for diagnostics, fluid man- factory 1” was held in September; and industrial trays to packaging for agement, pharmaceutical, surgery and founder and Managing Director Tahsin food and medical or cosmetic products interventional applications. Dag screwed the last screw into the to refill caps, advent calendars and building, which the company claims much, much more. (hw/msh) It is now adding a new four-story build- ing on a site measuring 1,850 m² to augment its current 43,000 m² of pro- duction and logistics space and to house clean rooms for extrusion blow molding operations. The new facility will meet state-of-the-art standards for automation, sustainability and the Industry 4.0 vision. Commission- ing is scheduled for early 2023. (hw)

British fiber optic company expands in Erfurt

Another boost for fast internet: The Emtelle Group is adding microduct pro- duction capacity in Erfurt and will soon start making fiber optic cables itself at multimodal business park GVZ Erfurt. Since taking over Moore GmbH in Octo- ber 2017, the Emtelle Group has com- pletely repositioned the company and generated tremendous growth. It now employs 82 employees here, with more Papacks‘ new location should develop as well as the trees planted at the topping-out ceremony. Photo: Juliane Keith to come.

Emtelle recently purchased 1.7 hec- tares of land next to its current factory at GVZ Erfurt. The new structure will Seed specialist will open new house a VDE-compliant product test facility and customer training center, production site in Thuringia production and storage capacity and office and training rooms. According to Emtelle, it will soon be the only man- Strong commitment to Thuringia as a al agricultural industry, highly skilled and ufacturer in Germany to manufacture place to do business: Hahn & Karl Saaten- motivated workforce, Eisenberg’s central and combine both of the technological handel GmbH from Bad Soden recently location in Europe and the close, posi- components needed for fast internet built a production, logistics and admin- tive support we received from the state, under one roof: microducts and fiber istrative center in Eisenberg, in eastern including LEG,” explained Dr. Axel Kaske, optic cables. (hw) Thuringia. Managing Director of Hahn & Karl. In addi- tion to current sales markets such as Thur- The company has invested several million ingia, Saxony and Bavaria, the company euros and created at least 10 new jobs. hopes to tap markets in Italy, Austria and The center will be used not only to whole- Northern and Eastern Europe and make sale agricultural seeds but also to house greater use of central Germany for seed a new production line for wild bird feed. production. (hw/msh) “We picked Thuringia for its strong region- Innovative project extends News battery life Researchers from Thuringia rejoice about 2020 German Future Award

If we want to put millions of electric ve- in cooperation with CATL, driving Thur- For their project „EUV Lithography - hicles on the road, their batteries will ingian’s ongoing evolution into a center New Light for the Digital Age“, Feder- need to live longer. That is the mission of of excellence for battery technology. The al President Frank-Walter Steinmeier BattLife, the initial project of the newly Thuringian state government has started awarded the prize for technology and founded Battery Innovation and Technol- emphasizing forward-looking technology innovation to a team of experts from ogy Center (BITC) at the Erfurter Kreuz in- transfers; it provided more than 13.5 mil- ZEISS, Semiconductor Manufacturing dustrial area. BITC will be optimizing the lion euros in funding to build BITC. (hw) Technology (SMT) Division, TRUMPF energy storage devices and their compo- Lasersystems for Semiconductor Man- nents and extending their service lives in ufacturing, and the Fraunhofer Insti- a digitalized testing center. tute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF in Jena in November. BITC’s industry partner is Contemporary EUV stands for „extremely ultraviolet“, Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. (CATL), a Chi- i.e. light with an extremely short wave- nese battery manufacturer who leads the length. In this and the next decade, this global market in the development of lith- unrivalled key technology will enable ium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and the production of far more powerful, energy storage. CATL is building its first energy-efficient and cost-effective mi- European factory at Erfurter Kreuz, where Thuringian Economics Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee, Dr. crochips than ever before. it plans to employ up to 2,000 people. BITC Roland Weidl, Site Manager at BITC and Jason Chen, General Manager Operations Europe CATL at the symbolic handover will work on BattLife and other projects of the subsidy cheque. Photo: Fraunhofer „This is an absolutely future-oriented development and the prize is a clear signal for the outstanding scientific and technological achievements that are being made here in Thuringia,“ said UV light disinfects Economics Minister Wolfgang Tiefen- ambulances see, delightedly.

Southern Thuringian company BINZ re- a push of a button while the ambulance Jena company provides modern optics cently launched a groundbreaking inno- waits for its next call. It requires no warm- in orbit vation to combat deadly pathogens: An ing-up period, generates no harmful LED light system installed in the ambu- ozone and has proven to be better and When satellites circulate in space, they lance’s headliner emits UV light that kills more variable than fluorescent bulbs, require mirrors with a wide variety of op- 99.99 percent of bacteria, viruses and according to the Fraunhofer Institute in tical properties. SpaceOptix has exact- other germs in just under ten minutes. Ilmenau, which collaborated with BINZ ly the products they need. The eastern in developing the innovative technology. Thuringian company, based in Jena, the The Ilmenau-based ambulance equip- The partnership between the company birthplace of modern optics, worked ment manufacturer claims that its tech- and the research institution is an example closely with the nearby Fraunhofer In- nology disinfects vehicles more quickly of the kind of vibrant, fruitful technology stitute for Applied Optics and Precision and thoroughly than conventional meth- transfers that happen in Thuringia. (hw) Engineering to develop metal lenses ods. The light system is activated with that can be tailored to customers’ pref- erences. They come with a broad array of optical features in sizes that range from a few millimeters to half a meter.

“SpaceOptix’s success story is a prime example of a productive technology transfer that is rooted in tradition in Thuringia but still able to serve markets of the future,” said LEG Department Manager Dr. Arnulf Wulff. Close cooper- ation between industry and academia is one of the locational advantages that LEG always cites when talking to inves- tors. (hw)

Also Thuringia‘s Minister for Economic Affairs, Wolfgang Tiefensee, already informed himself about the innovative UVC disinfection of BINZ. Photo: BINZ Hiking trails: Rennsteig tops News the ranking Digital formats

One of Thuringia’s biggest draws for Green”, being built by the Austria-based Since it is currently hard to meet skilled workers is the beauty of its coun- Mayer Family Hotels Group. Rennsteig fans in person, LEG has created Log. tryside. The Thuringian Forest with the can check in starting in 2021. (hw/gro) in Thuringia, a digital platform for Rennsteig ridgeway trail is extremely virtual workshops, lectures and popular with nature lovers. A recent rank- seminars that will take you and ing showed that the Rennsteig is Germa- your company to the next level in ny’s best-loved hiking trail. Thuringia. The content ranges from presentations on Thuringia as an The German Hiking Association (DWV) excellent location for the battery in- analyzed Google searches of hiking trails dustry and panel discussions on life – and the ridgetop trail in southern Thur- sciences and robotics to informa- ingia left the other German hiking trails far tion on export promotion, recruiting behind. Its top position is no surprise: The skilled workers, etc. Rennsteig is the most frequented long-dis- tance hiking trail in Germany, attracting some 100,000 hikers a year. It starts near the Wartburg, the castle near Eisenach where Martin Luther translated the Bible. It also passes through the winter sports mecca of Oberhof, the future site of the 2023 Biathlon and Luge World Champion- ships. The tourism infrastructure is being expanded here, including an extraordi- Right on trend: Hiking in Thuringia is becoming nary hotel, the “Familux Resort The Grand increasingly popular. Photo: TTG

The German Tourism Real Estate Summit, originally scheduled to be held at the Spa & GolfResort in Blankenhain, Thuringia, was also Leuchtenburg: Experience history conducted digitally. The exciting program, packed with outstand- up-close and personal ing speakers, and the interactive elements such as video commu- In Thuringia, learning about history can Thuringian Economics Minister Wolfgang nication, surveys, chat rooms and be a picturesque experience. It has the Tiefensee, accompanied by LEG Managing 1-on-1 networking discussions highest density of castles and palaces Director Sabine Wosche, officially present- kept boredom at bay and attracted in Germany. That includes Leuchtenburg ed a grant notice for around six million more than 100 attendees. Thuringia Castle in eastern Thuringia, which is re- euros in funding for the elevator to Sven- clearly raised its profile as a vaca- ceiving an inclined elevator and becoming Erik Hitzer, Chairman of the Leuchtenburg tion destination. Germany’s first accessible hill castle. Castle Foundation, and Kristina Vogel, a two-time Olympic winner and the project’s Known as the “Queen of the Saale Val- patron. The new elevator, which climbs 61 ley”, Leuchtenburg Castle majestically meters of elevation, will make the castle and gracefully overlooks the valleys to the fully accessible. And that will bring history Publisher: to life for even more people regardless of State Development Corporation of Thuringia south of Jena. Since 2014, it has housed (LEG Thüringen) “Thuringian Porcelain Worlds”, a mul- disability. (hw) ti-award-winning exhibition. In October, Editorial Staff: Dr. Holger Wiemers (V.i.S.d.P.), Olivia Großmann, Christine Maas, Marie Sofie Holub Copy Deadline: 8.12.2020 Layout: Luise Marholdt Printed by: Mehgro

Contact: Dr. Arnulf Wulff – Senior Vice President Investment, International Business and Cluster Promotion Mainzerhofstrasse 12 99084 Erfurt, Germany Phone: +49 (0) 361 5603-450 [email protected] www.invest-in-thuringia.de

The printing paper used for this brochure comes from sustainable forestry. The „Queen of the Saale Valley“ will receive an elevator and thus become barrier-free accessible. Photo: Fotolia