I attended this presentation & reception hosted by the Austrian Trade Office in Chicago during the plastics show @ McCormick Place:INNOVATIVE AUSTRIA: STRATEGIES FOR U.S. COMPANIES TO CONQUER THE EUROPEAN MARKET. Here’s the presentation: 090624 SPI≡_Upper Austria_presentation_final version
Since you can read the presentation yourself, here are a few notes:
- Upper Austria is northeast of Salzburg
- this is the economic development organization’s 10 year anniversary
- demand for parts is down 35%
- assembly time in the example given has been reduced from 30 minutes to 4 minutes
- they have a budget of 120M Euros to subsidize R&D
- although Upper Austria is due West of Lower Austria, the name has nothing to do with location, rather with elevation. Upper Austria is closer to the mountains, while Lower Austria lies closer to the Danube River valley.
Here are 6 reasons given to consider working in plastics in Upper Austria:
- highly qualified workforce
- 1st class education & training
- plastics cluster of 400 companies
- investment in R&D
- opportunities in plastics processing, raw material/recyclate production & trading, mold/toolmaking, mechanical engineering
- location
I won’t claim to know the plastics industry well, but I have spent a fair amount of time in Austria. If they’re as good in plastics as they are in other industries, you should check them out.
