Semcon Teams With Volkswagen in Brazil

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Volkswagen has chosen Semcon’s (STO:SEMC) newly acquired company IVM as its development partner in Brazil. IVM has been part of the Semcon Group since April 1st. 120 people will initially work with assignments at Volkswagen’s Trucks & Busses division in Sao Paulo and Resende.

“IVM’s excellent collaboration and long relationship with Volkswagen has paved the way for this deal,” says Stefan Ohlsson, Senior Vice President Semcon Automotive R&D. “For us it means that we get a good first foothold in Brazil. The country has a steadily growing automotive industry with many of the leading manufacturers established here, like GM, Scania and AB Volvo. This new partnership provides excellent growth potential.”

The initial stages of the partnership will involve 120 people over a three-year period, with the possibility of further expansion. This will make Brazil the third largest country staff-wise that Semcon has business in, after Sweden and Germany. The undertaking will start with services in the Engineering Departments, for example Powertrain, Chassis, Electric & Electronics, Interior & Body, Quality Assurance, Finite Elements Simulation and Testing services.

The Brazilian market Brazil, along with Russia, India, China and Korea, are known as the BRICK countries. Over the next five years it is expected that the prosperity of all these countries will increase almost double that of the average for the rest of the world. These countries’ annual growth rate is expected to be around 11 per cent, compared to an average global growth rate of 6 per cent.

Semcon is 2650 committed people with a passion for product development, technical information and IT. Today Semcon is active in Sweden, Australia, Brazil, China, Germany, Hungary, Malaysia, Norway and the UK and via partners in Belgium, France, Portugal and Spain. Semcon had pro forma sales of around EUR 267 million in 2006 and it is listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange’s Nordic list.