9,000 jobs are to be created in Hungary’s second largest city, Debrecen. The Chinese group CATL is building an electric car battery factory there. Local residents fear an environmental catastrophe.
Countless excavators and cranes are working on a gigantic gravel field, further than the eye can see. In the Hungarian lowlands near Debrecen, Hungary’s second-largest city, a new battery factory of the Chinese manufacturer CATL is being built on an area the size of 300 soccer fields. The gigantic factory is the largest foreign investment in Hungary ever.
Chinese batteries not only for Mercedes
The Chinese group CATL is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of batteries for electric cars. Mercedes-Benz, among others, purchases battery cells from the Asian company. By the end of 2022, CATL had already started production in its first European factory in Erfurt, Thuringia. However, this plant is considerably smaller than the planned location in Hungary. While a production capacity of initially 14 gigawatt hours is planned in Erfurt, it should increase to up to 100 gigawatt hours in Debrecen.
According to Foreign Minister Szijjarto, his country currently ranks fourth in the world for battery production. If all the new plants would then run, you could even move up to second place. An ambitious goal with which the local population is anything but happy.
“Dependent on Russia and China”
According to a survey, two thirds of the people in Debrecen are against the construction of the new factory. Resistance has been forming for several months. Also present is the 40-year-old engineer Eva Kozma, whose village is only about two kilometers from the construction site.
Eva Kozma lives not far from the construction site for the new battery factory.
Not only does she worry that the new plant could pollute the environment, she also warns of the enormous energy consumption: “This factory will be a terrible energy guzzler. In winter, my children had to sit at school at 18 degrees because we had to save energy . We will always be dependent on foreign energy. Then we will not only be dependent on Russia, but also on China.”
Financial incentives for Chinese investors
Experts like Tamás Matura, who analyzes China’s influence in Hungary for a think tank, speak of a snowball effect. Chinese investors have had a tradition in the country for twenty years. The Hungarian government is literally rolling out the red carpet for them.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban is said to have landed the deal with CATL with financial incentives of 800 million euros. The site has already been sold to the Chinese. In return, they would have access to the EU internal market in Hungary and no political difficulties, says Matura.
High water consumption in drought region
The problem with a battery factory of this size, however, is the fact that you need an enormous amount of water, energy and labor – Hungary has none of that. The country of 10 million people still relies part of its energy supply on long gas supply contracts with Russia. The new factory would thus not only increase dependence on China, but also on Russia.
The second problem besides the enormous energy consumption is the water. Last summer the Debrecen area experienced a historic drought. Lakes dried up, fish died, crops withered. The residents do not understand that such a water-intensive industry is to be created here. Farmers fear for their crops and warn of catastrophe if their wells dry up. CATL and local authorities are trying to allay fears. The Chinese investor lets it be known that the water requirement should be covered primarily by waste water.
Factory needs skilled workers from abroad
In the midday heat, Eva and her fellow campaigners march through the village of Mikepercs, handing out flyers to passers-by, trying to convince as many citizens as possible to join their protest. The eldest of them, a bold lady with a short blonde haircut, is wearing an oversized white shirt printed with a battery factory and a skull next to it. They are all afraid for their homes, worried that toxic substances could get into the soil or the air.
The machines are on the construction site of the planned battery factory in Debrecen.
Laszlo Popp, mayor of the city of Debrecen and member of Orban’s ruling party Fidesz, disagrees. He sees the plant as an important building block towards e-mobility and promises that Chinese investors must also produce cleanly: “Hungary and Debrecen are not Europe’s garbage dumps. The same environmental protection standards apply here as in other areas of the European Union,” says the Mayor. And adds: “We implement these consistently and very strictly and expect our investors to comply with these criteria and environmental protection standards, and we will force them to do so.”
However, he admits that the needs of 9,000 workers cannot be met with Hungarian workers alone. There is also a shortage of skilled workers in Hungary. However, the country is not very attractive for foreign workers, also due to Orban’s anti-immigration rhetoric.