China's leading battery maker backs Hungary's green industrial transformation

China's leading battery maker, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Ltd. (CATL), is spearheading the green industrial transformation in Debrecen, Hungary's second-largest city, with its new eight-billion-U.S.-dollar facility set to power Europe's EV sector.

With the global market for electric vehicles expected to reach nine trillion U.S. dollars by 2030, Hungary has made significant investments in the sector and is positioning itself to become a top battery producer, with Chinese battery giant CATL emerging as a key driver of this transformation.

The company has set out to build Europe's largest battery plant, supplying automakers such as Mercedes-Benz and BMW.

Noemi Sidlo, the PR Manager at CATL, underscored the symbiotic relationship between Debrecen and CATL.

"Debrecen is the right place for CATL, and CATL is the right company for Debrecen. Because we're thinking to stay in Debrecen for a very long time," she said.

CATL has already created hundreds of local jobs, with thousands more expected when production starts at the end of this year.

"We reached almost 650 employees. 20 percent is expats of these," she said.

The city's rapid expansion is fueling an economic boom, and real estate is surging to keep up. Construction cranes dot the skyline as new apartments, offices, and transport networks rise to accommodate the influx.

City officials emphasize sustainability as a priority, and CATL says its plant will meet the environmental demands.

The company aims to achieve carbon neutrality across its core operations by 2025, with plans to replicate these efforts in Debrecen shortly after the plant becomes operational, Sidlo emphasized.

China's leading battery maker backs Hungary's green industrial transformation

The death toll from a landfill collapse in the central Philippine city of Cebu has risen to eight by Monday morning as search and rescue operations continued for another 28 missing people.

The landfill collapse occurred on Thursday as dozens of sanitation workers were working at the site. The disaster has already caused injuries of 18 people.

Family members of the missing people said the rescue progress is slow, and the hope for the survival of their loved ones is fading.

"For me, maybe I’ve accepted the worst result already because the garbage is poisonous and yesterday, it was raining very hard the whole day. Maybe they’ve been poisoned. For us, alive or dead, I hope we can get their bodies out of the garbage rubble," said Maria Kareen Rubin, a family member of a victim.

Families have set up camps on high ground near the landfill, awaiting news of their relatives. Some people at the site said cries for help could still be heard hours after the landfill collapsed, but these voices gradually faded away.

Bienvenido Ranido, who lost his wife in the disaster, said he can't believe all that happened.

"After they gave my wife oxygen, my kids and I were expecting that she would be saved that night because she was still alive. But the night came and till the next morning, they didn't manage to save her," he said.

Death toll in central Philippine landfill collapse rises to eight