Saxony-Anhalt as an investment location in June 2013

Construction Site for Bits and Bytes: T-Systems Decide to Build Germany’s Largest Data Centre in Biere. Hartmut Möllring – Minister of Sciences and Economic Affairs – was at the massive T-Systems construction site in Biere today to see how the project was coming along. “It says a lot about Saxony-Anhalt as a centre for industry and commerce when an international enterprise such as T-Systems decides to undertake this type of flagship project here,” the Minister declared. He was particularly impressed by the fact that construction was proceeding on schedule despite the extreme duration and intensity of the previous winter. According to the Telekom subsidiary T-Systems, the largest data centre in Germany will be built in Biere, just 30 kilometres south of the Anhaltinian capital Magdeburg. When the final stage of expansion is complete, the server farm and its 34,200 square metres of Gross Floor Area of IT will take its rightful place alongside Europe’s largest data centres. Read more.


Chinese Company Invests in Saxony-Anhalt / Haseloff Signs Agreement in Berlin.
China-based Greatview Aseptic Packaging Co. Ltd. is set to expand its commitment in Saxony-Anhalt. On the occasion of the Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s visit to Germany, the agreement was signed at the Chancellery in Berlin today with the German Chancellor and Chinese Premier looking on. The signatories were Minister-President Reiner Haseloff, Greatview CEO Jeff Hua Bi and Halle Mayor Bernd Wiegand. The company has agreed to invest a further €38m in Halle, thereby creating an additional 26 new permanent positions in the city. Read more.


Glass from the Börde on the World Trade Center
Adorning the first 20 floors of the new and nearly completed World Trade Center (WTC) in New York is specialty glass from the Osterwedding-based firm f-Glass. Standing at 541.3 metres, the finished structure will be the tallest building in the United States. How was it possible for a company from the Magdeburg Börde to land such a contract? As the head of f-Glass, Thomas Belgardt pointed out, “Our principal shareholder is Interpane from Lower Saxony. They specialise in large-scale public construction projects and managed to secure the contract.” Read more.


Swiss Specialists Celebrate Start of Operations in the Harz
Wernigerode. On Friday, the US Engineering Deutschland GmbH officially went into operation in Wernigerode. Urs Schweinfurth, the Swiss investor who is underwriting the €2.4m commitment and after whom the company is named, signalised to the Volksstimme that he expected to see “organic growth” in the coming years. Read more.

Saxony-Anhalt as an investment location in May 2013

Patented pigments – heading from Leuna to the world.
Covering a surface area of around 10,000 square metres at the Leuna chemical site, FP-Pigments GmbH commissioned its production plant in the late summer of 2009 after being founded in 2008. Now, production capacities are being doubled as a result of the company expanding its production facilities. To this end, a second production line and a warehouse are being set up by the end of 2013. The total investment (which amounts to several million euros) is once again being supported by funding from the state, the federal government and the European Union. This will see the number of full-time jobs increase from 22 at present to at least 30. Read more.


Gunz Warenhandels GmbH wins an architecture award.
From a total of 60 projects put forward for the Architekturpreis des Landes Sachsen-Anhalt [Architecture Prize Awarded by the State of Saxony-Anhalt], the Gunz logistics centre based in Magdeburg (Saxony-Anhalt) was chosen for an award. The State of Saxony-Anhalt once again awarded the Architekturpreis des Landes Sachsen-Anhalt together with the Saxony-Anhalt Chamber of Architects. The prize has been awarded every three years since 1995 to the best submitted project. "The high quality and sheer breadth of current construction and planning tasks illustrate how just pioneering and contemporary new builds, conversions, expansions and building extensions in Saxony-Anhalt are," states patron Thomas Webel. The highest award, the Architekturpreis, was handed over at the Zentrum Taufe Eisleben in Lutherstadt (Saxony-Anhalt). Of the 60 entries submitted in total, 14 projects were short-listed, including the Gunz logistics centre. A jury team consisting of eight members decided which projects from these 14 would be accorded the honour of the Architekturpreis and five architecture awards. 1,900 residents of Sachsen-Anhalt voted on which project the audience prize would be awarded to directly. Read more.


Solvay is building new production plant in Genthin
Manufacture of special tensides / More than 30 new jobs. Solvay today announced today that it would like to build a production plant for special tensides in Genthin (a town in the Jerichower Land district). The annexe is set to house the development and manufacturing facilities for tensides used in Solvay's Cleaning, Care and Hygiene Products and Industrial Customers business sectors, which serve the markets in Central and Eastern Europe. "With this investment, we pushing forwards with our successful growth strategy of expanding production and development opportunities in a market- and customer-oriented fashion," said Emmanuel Butstraen, Chairman of Solvay Novecare. Read more.


New Fraunhofer innovation cluster set to improve energy and resource efficiency in production.
Rising energy and raw material costs are becoming an important competitive factor for Saxony-Anhalt's economy. Under the management of the Fraunhofer IFF in Magdeburg, innovative solutions are therefore being developed in the new ER-WIN innovation cluster in order to improve efficiency in energy and resource consumption within the state’s manufacturing industry. It's not only the state of Saxony-Anhalt that's facing the question of what it ought to do against steadily rising energy costs Rising energy and raw material prices, the need to reduce carbon footprints and higher energy grid fees being anticipated in the long term are forcing companies to rethink their resource consumption and switch to regionally and sustainably produced energy supplies. Above all, the state’s energy-intensive manufacturing industry has to adapt its processes to these new circumstances as quickly as possible in order to remain competitive. Read more.