Erfurter Kreuz: High-tech companies create 15,000 new jobs in a new industrial area CATL, N3, Daimler create pull for new investors

At 439 hectares, it is the largest industrial zone in Thuringia. LEG has been developing the Erfurter Kreuz industrial area since 2005 and has been attracting world-class companies ever since. Two of the high-tech companies: the world's largest battery cell manufacturer Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) and N3 Engine Overhaul Services, a joint venture between Lufthansa Technik and Rolls-Royce, which has become one of the most modern maintenance centres for large civil engines.

The challenge: Developing an attractive industrial location

LEG helps companies from Germany and abroad to settle in Thuringia. This is how they achieve high added value and create skilled jobs. LEG also develops industrial and commercial sites, including those with large contiguous areas. One of these strategically important areas is the Erfurter Kreuz, located in Arnstadt/Amt Wachsenburg. Here, LEG is creating one of the best-developed and most attractive industrial sites in the state of Thuringia. It acquired the site, which covers several hundred hectares, in order to develop and commercially exploit it: LEG's central land management tasks.

Our goals: Enabling value creation for high-tech companies and the region

Create an attractive environment for businesses
Create new jobs
Generate value for companies and Thuringia
Attract market-leading and high-tech companies
Increase growth and prosperity in Thuringia

“Thuringia is an attractive location for high-tech.”

Andreas Krey Spokesman of the LEG Management Board

“Thuringia must be attractive to investors, and we are creating the conditions for this with modern, well-developed industrial areas with excellent transport links, such as the Erfurter Kreuz. Through their investment decisions, companies such as CATL and N3 Engine Overhaul Services prove that Thuringia is an attractive location. Thanks to their high technology potential and large number of qualified jobs, both are a great asset for the Free State of Thuringia.”

Steps to develop the industrial site

1

LEG began acquiring land in 2005 and developed the Erfurter Kreuz into a modern industrial area. The development and construction of modern infrastructure is taking place in five construction phases. The last one is scheduled for completion by 2024/25.

2

The development included the expansion of the entire infrastructure, including the provision of all necessary connections to utilities such as electricity, (waste) water, gas and IT. In addition, the association's sewage treatment plant was expanded and a railway connection was constructed.

3

In order to attract companies, LEG promotes local sites at national and international markets, trade fairs and investor events, in trade journals and through its websites. With delegation trips abroad and countless personal contacts with multipliers and CEOs around the world, LEG supports companies that are planning to relocate or have already settled here.

4

In the course of their establishment and subsequent expansion, the companies benefit from full services provided by LEG: Location and funding advice, management by the authorities and support in recruiting skilled employees.

The results: 15,000 new jobs and a knock-on effect for new investments

Some 110 companies have now settled and created almost 12,000 jobs at the extremely successful LEG Erfurter Kreuz location and the adjacent commercial and industrial sites. When all current plans (especially those of CATL) have been realised, the number of jobs will have grown to approximately 15,000. CATL is investing about 1.8 billion euros and creating up to 2,500 new jobs. This creates a knock-on effect that promotes the establishment of other companies at the site.

N3 has invested almost 150 million euros in its site and currently employs almost 750 people. Other important companies that have been established at Erfurter Kreuz include Daimler, Marquardt, IHI Charging Systems, Gonvauto, XXXLutz and BorgWarner, as well as the Fraunhofer IKTS Battery Innovation and Technology Centre (BITC), which was established in 2020.

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