The automotive industry, electronics and home appliances retailand the construction materials market, fields that last yeartotalled 13bn euros, that is over 10% in GDP, have been among thehardest hit by the financial crisis this year. On the threemarkets, sales dropped by margins ranging between 30% and 55%, adecline that wiped out around 5.5bn euros from consumerspending.
The Romanian electronics and electrical home appliances market thisyear contracted by almost half a billion euros, falling from1.2-1.3bn euros in late 2008 to around 800m euros in 2009. Thelargest part of the 500m-euro loss of the market was located at thelevel of specialised retailers, whose sales are set to go down by300m euros by yearend, according to announced business plans.
The auto market in 2009 suffered the steepest decline of the past20 years. After ten years of consecutive two-digit increases, carsales this year posted drops of as much as 60%, to a volume of130,000 units, similar to the level of 2003 market. Sales of carsand commercial vehicles are put at 2bn euros this year, down 3.5bneuros from last year, according to ZF estimates. The overall carmarket shrank by 55%, to 147,000 units this year.
The construction materials market dropped by 27.2% in the first 11months of the year from the similar period of 2008, with sales ofthermo-insulating carpentry, cement and masonry materials as thehardest hit. In this context, the Association of Romania'sConstruction Materials Producers (APMCR) expects the market toreach 5-5.2bn euros this year, down 23% from 2008.
"For 2009, we project a value of 3.8-3.9bn euros of turnover on theconstruction materials market, without taking into account imports.These are put at 1.2-1.3bn euros, resulting in a market of5.0-5.2bn euros. Compared with the market of 2008, which we put at6.5bn euros, we're witnessing a decline," stated Claudiu Georgescu,APMCR chairman.
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