£130 million investment brings in 400 Shropshire jobs
Minister for Investment Graham Stuart has welcomed £130 million of foreign direct investment (FDI) into the UK automotive sector, which has included creating nearly 400 jobs in two new plants in Shropshire.
They include Magna International's new aluminium-casting factory in Telford to support Jaguar Land Rover.
The £77.6 million investment from the Canadian company will create 295 jobs when at full capacity.
They also include Polytec Ltd's new facility in Telford which will build bumpers and accessories for car manufacturers, including Jaguar Land Rover.
Austria-based Polytec have invested £18 million in the project, which will create 100 jobs.
The news comes following a report from EY which found the UK remains the number one destination for FDI in Europe in 2017/18.
Thanks to support from the Department for International Trade, four separate companies from across the globe – Steel & Alloy, Polytec, Constellium and Magna – have all chosen to invest in the UK and open new automotive related plants.
As the UK forms its own trade and investment policy for the first time in four decades, this marks the latest boost for a sector which exported £32 billion of products, including 1,340 000 vehicles, in 2017 – up 2.7 per cent on 2016 – to over 160 international markets. According to SMMT, more than 137,000 new vehicles rolled off the UK’s production line this May.
This includes lucrative emerging non-EU markets such as China, to whom the UK exported £4.2 billion of automotive products last year – growth of 16.7 per cent on 2016.
Mr Stuart said: “The opening of these four new plants is a fantastic example of investment pouring into the UK from around the world, which I witnessed in Oldbury. This is a clear sign of confidence in the strength of the UK’s automotive sector, which remains one of the most competitive in the world.
“As an international economic department, this is an excellent example of the work that DIT – with its sector-specific expertise and capability – is doing to create jobs and prosperity for communities up and down the country.”
