Good signs for automotive manufacturers, which account for 10% of GDP

Last year, nearly 10% of the Gross Domestic Product and over 10% of exports were accounted for by cars and by car parts, and with Ford announcing a production similar to that of the Dacia plant, the percentage could rise to over 15% after 2013.

For component manufacturers attending the Auto Romania conference organised by the Association of Automotive Manufacturers in Romania, this is a godsend: at Dacia production has been going up steadily for six years and Ford Romania's plans are at least similarly ambitious - a production capacity of 300,000 cars and engines in 2013 and an actual production of at least 200,000 units.
In the autumn of 2008, six months after Ford officially took over the Craiova plant, John Fleming, then president of Ford Europe and the one who decided that the American brand should enter the Romanian market, came to Bucharest with a delegation of 40 component manufacturers, who were given a presentation of the plant and of its future plans. Now, nearly two years on, Dionisio di Campos, announces that Ford will start production of B-Max, the future B-segment model which will be exclusively assembled in Craiova, as well as a steady pace of 85 Transit Connect utility vehicles a day.