The Continental Group has invested its own funds in streamlining its operations, because it does not have time to wait for the slow progress of procedures to attract public funding. Following these investments, the company has become so efficient that it no longer qualifies for a number of government or European funding programs.
“We made the energy efficiency strategy by trying, in recent years, to put everything together. Thus, we realized that we do not fit into certain co-financing programs dedicated to us because we are too efficient. We installed a lot of monitoring tools and identified where we have the highest energy consumption. It is much easier to be helped, but we are already a little further ahead than what is offered to us. We don’t have time to wait, that’s why some funds don’t end up being accessed or aren’t interesting”, said Ciprian Ceauranu, Facility engineer, Continental Automotive Timișoara.
The company invested in those sectors and processes that could reduce energy consumption, resulting in significant savings. The group has already installed several photovoltaic panels and plans to increase the share of green energy in consumption up to 15%. In fact, the group has invested over two billion euros in Romanian businesses since 1999.
“We have the advantage, as a private company, that we have funds, we know very well what to do with the money, we are interested in our money being invested efficiently and we are interested in producing with minimum costs. For this, we are usually many steps ahead compared to everything that is usually done in the public part of the preparations”, Ceauranu said, during the “Sustainable Communities – Timișoara” conference, organized by Energynomics and SmartiCity.
Continental Automotive’s production center in Timisoara manufactures over 17 million products annually. Among the most important can be listed: electronic control units for the airbag safety system, electronic braking and parking systems, accelerator pedals with feedback circuit, control units for hand detection on the steering wheel, air suspension attenuation and vertical stabilization, power steering control units, control units for suspension adjustment and dynamic load stabilization, standard type central display units, windscreen display systems and on-board instruments. The factory has delivered more than 147 million components to customers in more than 15 years of operation. Over the years, the production center has developed in the direction of Industry 4.0, integrating equipment and technologies such as the innovative storage system, trigeneration plant and others.
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Continental develops innovative technologies and services for the sustainable and interconnected mobility of people and their goods. The technology-driven company founded in 1871 provides safe, efficient, intelligent and affordable solutions for cars, vehicles, traffic and transport. Continental achieved sales of €37.7 billion in 2020 and currently employs around 233,000 people in 58 countries and markets. In 2021, the company celebrated its 150th anniversary.
Between 1999 and 2020, Continental has invested around €2 billion in its Romanian operations. All 5 business areas of the company are represented in Romania. Continental has seven production facilities and four engineering centers in Timisoara, Sibiu, Carei, Nădab, Brasov and Iasi. The company is a partner in a joint venture in Iași and has a tyre distribution center in Bucharest. Continental had more than 20,100 employees at the end of 2020, of which more than a third represented by engineers and computer scientists, and will continue to hire depending on future projects.
The conference was organized by Energynomics and SmartiCity with the support of partners ABB, Bosch, EximBank, Geminox, Kawasaki Gas Turbine Europe, LAPP Romania, Novotrol, Phoenix Contact, REI Group, UP Romania, Wiren.
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Throughout the event, Novotrol representatives answered participants’ questions. Novotrol is Baker Hughes Group’s channel partner for the Turbomachinery and Process Solutions (T.P.S.) and Flow & Process Technologies (F.&P.T.) divisions for Romania. “Our story started in 1996 with F.&P.T. Masoneilan Control Valves and Consolidated Safety Valves division. 27 years later we are still with F&P.T. but also with the Nuovo Pignone division from T.P.S. and with Thermodyn, thus offering more complete and complex solutions such as gas turbines and compressors”, told us Andrei Paraschiv, Sale Engineer Novotrol.