The Market's performance on a high-tech major investment has a continent-spanning impact - interview

We have previously reported that Market Építő Zrt. has taken on significant tasks in one of the largest investments in Hungarian history, the construction of the Comparative Amperex Technology Ltd. (CATL) battery factory in Debrecen. This giant project is a priority task for the leading Hungarian construction company, so they felt greatly honoured when, in the last days of last year, their delegation was invited to the Chinese headquarters of CATL for the giant company's year-end supplier conference.

We talked about this visit and the construction site itself with János Suga, Deputy General Manager of the Market Építő Zrt. and Daniel Szabó, Technical Director of the CATL project.

Did you know what the name Market means?

First, we asked János Suga about his impressions of the site, who represented Market together with Bettina Lehóczki, the design coordinator, at the conference held at the end of 2023. "With the investment of CATL, a factory of one of the leading companies of a huge country is settling in Hungary, which will bring the most advanced technology in the industry to Hungary", he recalled, and then added:

"We were not the only ones to win this project, but several companies were awarded subcontracts, so we considered it a great recognition of our work that last year we were invited to the CATL conference as the only supplier in Hungary - and even the only one in Europe."

After a long journey, they arrived at CATL's headquarters in Ningde, a small city with a population of around 600,000 people, where CATL has a large central factory and several other facilities on the outskirts of the city.

"At the conference we met with several leaders who knew and appreciated the work of Market. At the gala dinner, we were also introduced to Robin Zeng, the group's chairman and part-owner- who was also no stranger to the Market name," he said of the warm welcome from CATL executives working with tens of thousands of development and design staff.

"We hope that our invitation may be related to the fact that the Chinese company may be counting on us for further investments, possibly in Central Europe. We are finding that they are recommending us to other Chinese companies, as we have recently had an increase in this type of enquiry, which is a positive reference."

- he pointed out.

The role of high emotional intelligence

He added that one of the things that impressed him about the Chinese company's approach was that they were open to understanding new cultures. "Here in Hungary, we are not used to the fact that when a foreign company comes here, it makes a special effort to understand how we think. However, at CATL, the emotional intelligence of the managers is very high: I have found that they want to understand Hungarian customs, Hungarian ways of thinking. They strive for dialogue with subcontractors instead of commanding, which is an absolute curiosity."

How a huge construction project is broken down into sub-tasks

Afterwards, when we thought back to Hungary and asked what the Market will do on the CATL plant, Dániel Szabó, Technical Director, took the floor.

"The investor has organised the investment in a similar way to any other large investment of this kind. Firstly, several tenders were invited for the construction phase: firstly, there was a competition between the Hungarian bidders for the excavation work, followed by the structural work and the cladding. This will be followed by a further - phase, which is currently being put out to tender - for the mechanical and electrical works"", he said.

"The Market was invited to tender by the CATL at an early stage, we tendered and were the only ones to win the earthworks. The subsequent piling was a complex project with a larger volume, so it was tendered to several companies, but our group was one of the winners here too. This continued during the construction of the structure" , he said.

They also have the opportunity to take on the biggest challenge

"The tender for the mechanical and electrical works is not yet closed, but we have also started. This last phase of construction accounts for 40-60% of the total construction cost: a very complex sub-task, requiring high technological skills. Not every project of this kind invites a Hungarian company to tender, for example SK Innovation in Ivanča did not even do it, but we were given the opportunity - there are not many Hungarian players in this segment yet. Here we are still waiting for the tender results" - Dániel Szabó summarized, and then he also mentioned that the last work phase, the architectural specialist works (such as the facade or roof construction) was won by an international company, so the division of labour between the two Hungarian and foreign players is currently in the order of 40-40-20 percent.

Finally, he stressed that in addition to the first phase of this huge project, two others will be similarly divided - and Dániel Szabó has positive feelings about the chances of Market.

They gain profit and experience at the same time

"I think so - the director continued - because, in my current view, there are three really large industrial projects in Hungary, from which Hungarian construction companies can not only make profits, but also gain significant new knowledge: the SK Innovation in Ivánca, the BMW factory in Debrecen and the CATL factory in Debrecen (it should be mentioned that Dániel Szabó, as technical director, is involved in the implementation of all three - ed.). It should be added that the exact amount of investment in the planned giant BYD project in Szeged is not yet known, but it is possible that it will exceed all the investment so far. In any case, taking the last 15 years as a benchmark and putting them into perspective, the investment of CATL is clearly comparable to that of Audi in Győr or Mercedes-Benz in Kecskemét." He mentioned with obvious pride: "the specific expertise and experience of Market in such investments are a good reference for the company".

"These megaprojects are not on the scale of a nuclear power plant, but they are highly complex technological developments that all construction companies need to grow to serve. It is also interesting for us that, after having learned about the German investor mentality, we are now getting to know the Chinese one in more detail."

"It is already apparent that there is not as much difference between the approaches of the big multinational companies as an outside observer might think", he continued, adding that in the SK Innovation project he sees a South Korean company as being better integrated into the Western economic system, while a Chinese company may still be learning about an industrial and investment environment that is different from their own standards. "These challenges are usually solved quickly, especially if they already have Western experience, as the CATL has. In any case, there is an acclimatization process, which may also be the reason why Chinese companies tend to prefer working with Hungarian contractors rather than other foreign investors."

Credibility must be proven

Asked why they think they were the only ones invited to Ningde, János Suga has already answered. "When we talked to the CATL leaders out there, they said they didn't know Europe as well as they would like to from the Far East, and they didn't know Central Europe at all. So they cannot decide who is authentic. They added that they thanked us for this work because we did not make promises, we did not say we knew everything, but we were clear and unambiguous about what we could do and what we could do. And what we undertook to do, we actually did it", he concluded.