Romanian car manufacturing is back on track, as Dacia, Ford and Daimler’s subsidiary are all working at full speed, reports Maszol. Starting this month, the Dacia plant in Mioveni has all of its employees back on a full work schedule, working six days per week.
The Dacia plant’s management is, in fact, seeking to boost production capacity to a maximum. Currently, 1,313 cars are assembled per day, but as demand is high, the car manufacturer wants to push this limit to 1,400 cars per day. The original target for reaching peak production was set for August, but demand caught up with delivery at a slower-than-expected pace.
At Ford’s Romanian plant, the production line was partially restored in July, but the line responsible for producing the Ecoboost engine did not reach peak production until September, working seven days a week at the Craiova-based plant. The production capacity was boosted by a USD 30 million investment since the plant will be assembling the Puma ST model, the first Made-in-Romania sports car.
Daimler’s Romanian subsidiary, the Szászsebes/Sebes-based Star Assembly plant, is also back on track, as the demand for Mercedes-Benz cars is rising. This prompted plant administrators to hire 145 workers and introduce another shift in the production line. Star Assembly reported a turnover of more than EUR 1.5 billion last year and had more than 1,700 employees.
All the above is good news for the Romanian economy, as the automotive industry accounted for about 14% of GDP in 2018 and provided 27% of exports, according to former Minister of the Economy Niculae Bădălău.
Title image: The Mioveni plant. Image source: Groupe Renault
