Spanish auto components maker Grupo Antolin will expand its operations in Romania this year through the launch of a new greenfield plant.

Grupo Antolin-CML, the group’s lighting division, expects the new 13,000 sqm plant to be fully operational by end-2014, reports European Plastics News.

The construction of the new moulding and assembly plant is already underway in the same industrial area where the existing Romanian unit is located, close to Sibiu’s airport.

By March 2014, the company plans to relocate its injection machines from the present moulding shop to the new unit and install 10 more machines of 200 – 470 tonnes.

Also, during the year, the firm intends to gradually switch its current lighting product assembly lines to the new facility.

Grupo Antolin employs over 14,000 people in more than 100 facilities located in 25 countries. The plant in Sibiu currently employs 357 people and serves several global automotive manufacturers.

The group acquired the Sibiu plant in 2011 when it took over the French interior lighting supplier CML Innovative Technologies.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com