Economy of Hungary

The following weighty sectors affecting the Hungarian economy are metallurgy and cement production.

Since the crisis, the weight of these sectors of the economy also declined. Nowadays the largest in Europe metallurgy industrial complex Dunafer is on the verge of bankruptcy.

Cement production also decreased significantly by reducing production capacities by some cement plants, and several cement plants were shutdown completely.

Nowadays the economy of Hungary looks a little differently.

Large share in the development of the Hungarian economy takes machine building. Due to the low labour costs in comparison to other European countries, European and Asian automobile holdings built several major automobile plants on the territory of Hungary in recent years. These are in particular: Audi, Mercedes, WV, Suzuki, Raba.

Chemical industry is well-developed, these are companies Borsodchem and TVK.

Strong influence on the economy also has company Gedeon Richter, which is one of the largest manufacturers of pharmaceutical products in Europe.

Hungary is rather serious transport corridor and energy resources distribution centre coming into the EU from the eastern part of the European continent. Large volumes of Russian and Asian oil and gas are transported through Hungary. State company MOL, the monopolist in this area is considered one of the biggest players in the European energy market. With transportation and distribution of energy products according to the contract of delegation the French company Eon is engaged, which transmits the incoming energy products for the final distribution to the Austrian Baumgarten for the company OMW.

Considerable impact on the Hungarian economy had an opportunity in the recent past to deliver gas to Ukraine coming from Russia to Hungary by reverse. This tendency becomes relevant again today for the Hungarian energy market.

Significant impact on the Hungarian economy has supply, transit and redistribution of electrical energy coming from Ukraine, these processes the French company Eon oversees as well.

The role of road transport sector in the economy of Hungary is also high. Due to severe infusion from the EBRD, many transport highways of European level were constructed connecting the centre of Hungary, the city of Budapest with all the cities of regional importance and with all major highways of the neighbouring countries, thanks to which Hungary became a significant player in the field of road transport logistics in Europe.

Using investment of Ukrainian businessmen, close to the border crossing between Ukraine and Hungary Chop-Záhony, the construction of the largest logistics industrial park in Eastern Europe was started.

In the city of Debrecen, at the premises of the former military airport, thanks to investments from the EBRD and Chinese entrepreneurs, the construction of Europe's largest air terminal for receiving of commodity air carriages, both for the transit of goods coming from Asia, and for the further land transport of goods to other EU countries.

In tems of logistics, the Danube is also important as water transport artery that connects Europe and Hungary to the Black Sea. Along the Danube today there are several commercial ports that maintain receipt of incoming goods from producers of the Black Sea countries, as well as goods that enter the Black Sea ports from other countries for trans-shipment and are transported from the Black Sea ports by the Danube further in Europe. Over the past few years, a number of successful major agreements between private ports in Ukraine and ports in Hungary has been signed and implemented.

Nowadays, thanks to investments by Rosneft, Europe's largest terminal for receiving and storage of liquefied gases is being constructed on the Danube.

Thus, Hungary from the primary producer slowly turns into a serious producer of finished products and meaningful player in the logistics market of Europe.

Watch the presentation