Dürr lands two big orders on thriving Eastern European market

12/14/2004

• New paint shop for KIA in Zilina, Slovakia
• Expansion of paint shop for Russian company Izhmash-Avto
• Total order value of about Euro 120 million

The Korean automobile manufacturer KIA Motors has placed an order worth about Euro 97 million with Dürr for the planning, design and construction of a large-series paint shop at KIA¥s Zilina site in Slovakia. In addition, Izhmash-Avto, a Russian automotive company producing automobiles under license from KIA, has awarded Dürr a contract worth about Euro 23 million for the modernization of the paint shop at its Izhevsk production site.

Both orders went to Paint Systems, the largest business unit at Dürr. Paint Systems, in its capacity as general contractor for a brand new production facility KIA is building at Zilina, is delivering a state-of-the-art paint finishing plant (including buildings and control and conveyor systems) for this facility. This plant will make use of innovative production technology such as the RoDip method for the dip-painting of automobile bodies. Starting in December 2006 KIA will be painting various automobiles at the Zilina site. The new paint shop will have an annual capacity of 300,000 vehicles.

The order placed by the Russian automobile manufacturer Izhmash-Avto is divided into three parts. First, Dürr will be supplying a complete pretreating and dip-painting line including all the required conveyor and control systems. Second, Dürr has agreed to modernize the present primer and topcoat lines; to achieve this, it plans to install a total of 12 Ecopaint painting robots. The third part of the order consists of an entire paint finishing line for plastic automobile assemblies; this line will also include all the necessary conveyor and control systems. Following plant commissioning in August 2006, Izhmash-Avto intends to produce 40,000 Spectras annually for KIA as well as 120,000 of its own models for the Russian market.

Eastern Europe is second only to Asia as the fastest-growing market for automobiles today. Stephan Rojahn, CEO of Dürr AG, explained: "The automobile industry is stepping up investments in Eastern Europe." He added: "Owing to our local presence and our collaboration with other parts of the global Dürr network, we can make the best use of these business opportunities - not only with our painting systems but with other production systems for automobile manufacturers and suppliers as well."

The Dürr Group is one of the leading suppliers worldwide of production systems and manufacturing support services for the automobile industry. In 2003, Dürr achieved sales of almost Euro 2.3 billion with about 12,750 employees.