Investment location Saxony-Anhalt: June - August 2017

What has happened in the local economy? An overview of the most important news items.

Investments

• IMG investors service: Half-yearly results. The IMG investor service made an excellent start to the 2017 financial year. In the first half of the year, we prevailed 26 times in convincing businesses to choose Saxony-Anhalt over other locations. Eleven of the companies are planning to make investments to the value of more than 10 million Euros – an all-time record in the history of the IMG. Read more.
  
  
• Finsterwalder: Expansion of logistics center. Finsterwalder ranks amongst the big logistics companies and important employers in Saxony-Anhalt. The investment reaching the millions is a positive signal for the city and creates new jobs at the Halle/Saale location, which has been existing for 26 years already. Read more.
  
  
• Henschel Metallbau expands production plant. The craft enterprise Henschel Metallbau is investing more than three million euros in the expansion of its production plant. The company currently employs 70 people. Read more.
  
  
• TAS AG creates 100 jobs. TAS AG, one of the largest family-run service providers for customer dialogues in Germany, expands to Merseburg. The company will already be opening its new branch in the cathedral and university city at the end of August, thus creating more than 100 new jobs. For this, TAS has invested more than half a million euros in the interior construction, to develop an empty former bank branch into a modern service centre. Read more.
  
  
• Allfein Feinkost expands plant. The company is investing 21 million euros in the expansion of its plant and will create more than 20 new jobs. Saxony-Anhalt is supporting the expansion with €2.4 million from the joint task “Improvement of the Regional Economic Structures” (GRW). Read more.
  
  

Research & Development

• Neurobiologists create a complete map of the larva brain. An international consortium of scientists, including researchers from the Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology (LIN), has succeeded in mapping every single connection of all the nerve cells in the memory system of the fly larva. These so-called “mushroom bodies” represent a minimal circuit for learning and memory processes. The results have been published in the acclaimed scientific journal, Nature. Read more.
  
  
• Microalgae research in Saxony-Anhalt: leading institutes forge networks. A new research group consisting of Anhalt University of Applied Sciences, the Fraunhofer Center for Chemical-Biotechnological Processes in Leuna and the Max Planck Institute for the Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems in Magdeburg is set to combine its expertise in the area of microalgae research. Its goal is to be able to manufacture organic dyes and proteins from microalgae biomass on an industrial basis. Read more.
  
  
• Fraunhofer CEM starts its work: Focus on the economics of materials for the location of Germany. The new centre will act as an interface between industrial challenges such as digitisation, material efficiency and accelerated innovation cycles on the one hand, and the strategies surrounding materials research on the other. The Fraunhofer CEM will advise the worlds of business, science and politics on the issues regarding the efficient use of raw materials and materials and sustainable economic development, and thereby contribute to securing location-based advantages in Germany and Europe over the long-term. Read more.
  
  
• Computers asses the transformation of microorganisms into cell factories. With the help of newly developed computer algorithms, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems in Magdeburg have analysed five of the most important biotechnological production organisms, including Escherichia coli and bakers’ yeast, and completed research into how the growth of cells can optimally paired with the overproduction of (bio-)chemicals. Read more.

• Good momentum for green hydrogen: German government supports further HYPOS. Further innovative projects under the umbrella of the hydrogen project HYPOS are being financially supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Three projects are thus now receiving grant allocations aimed at reducing costs for the production, transport, storage and utilisation of green hydrogen, thus rendering a contribution to the future cost-effectiveness of "green” hydrogen applications. Read more.
  
  
• LIN has shaped the scientific landscape in Saxony-Anhalt. The Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology has in the past 25 years moved, shaped and pushed forward the scientific landscape in Saxony-Anhalt and also been a visible and enduring influence far beyond the state’s borders. Magdeburg has evolved into one of the most significant brain research sites in Germany and Europa. Read more.
  
  

Save the Date

• Special Machinery Cluster opportunities in Eastern Germany: Investors conference on September 4th, 2017 in Singapur. Find out more.
  
  

• FAKUMA: From 17 to 21 October 2017, Saxony-Anhalt will show innovations in the field of plastics and plastics technologies at the trade show Fakuma in Friedrichshafen. At the joint stand of the federal state of Saxony-Anhalt at booth FO-54, small and medium-sized companies from Saxony-Anhalt present innovations and application examples in the field of industrial plastic processing. Find out more.

• IMG Saxony-Anhalt at CMEF Autumn 2017 in Kunming/China. From 29 October to 1 November 2017, Investment and Marketing Corporation promotes the federal state of Saxony-Anhalt as attractive business location for the medical engineering and life science industry at the China Medical Equipment Fair (CMEF) in Shenzhen/China. Find out more.
  
  
• IMG Saxony-Anhalt at Japan-Germany Industry Forum 2017 in Tokyo. This year's November, GTAI Germany Trade & Invest organizes the 13th Japan-Germany Industry Forum (JGIF) in Tokyo. Find out more.
  
  
• IMG Saxony-Anhalt at automechanika SHANGHAI 2017. From 29th November until 2nd December 2017 IMG promotes the federal state of Saxony-Anhalt as attractive business location and competence centre for the automotive supply industry at automechanika SHANGHAI 2017. Find out more.
  
  

Good 2 Know

• TESVOLT’s online calculator tool determines the most cost-efficient storage solution for peak load capping. Storage manufacturer TESVOLT is introducing a free tool for calculating the most cost-efficient storage solution for capping load peaks. From now on, installers and end customers can go online to determine the optimal configuration for a storage system, which improves load management and thus reduces the electricity costs for commercial and industrial companies; all in just a few clicks. Read more.
  
  
• New autobahn: The Bundesstraße (B) 6 will become the “Braunschweig-Bernburg” federal autobahn. The B 6n from Lower Saxony to the A 14 Bernburg junction together with the A 395 between junction Braunschweig Süd (A 39/A 395) and the Vienenburg Triangle (A 395/B 6n) will be uniformly called the A 36. Read more.
  
  
• Land promotes innovation cluster for bioeconomy. Wood instead of petroleum: In Saxony-Anhalt, the course is being set for the changeover from fossil to renewable non-food materials. The state government is now campaigning for the long-term for the further development of the bio-economy. Read more.
  
  
• A super-sponge for oil spills: German chemist receives European Inventor Award 2017 in the SMEs category. Read more.
  
  
• Trinseo Celebrates 80th Anniversary of Synthetic Rubber Production. Trinseo (NYSE: TSE), the global materials solution provider and manufacturer of plastics, latex binders and synthetic rubber, today is celebrating 80 years of synthetic rubber production in Schkopau, Germany close to its production site, which pioneered the commercialization of synthetic rubber and fostered its growth on an international scale. Read more.
  
  

• A culinary voyage for journalists: Asparagus, chocolate, fine mushrooms, algae and sausage – journalists and food bloggers discover delicious and trendy foods in the Altmark What do things taste like in Saxony-Anhalt, how are foods produced, what are the people, technologies and philosophies behind them? Ten economics and trade journalists, and food bloggers from Germany and Switzerland looked into these questions on 19 and 20 June 2017 on a press trip through Saxony-Anhalt. Read more.