Continental Automotive Products Timisoara, the tyre manufacturing unit of the German group Continental, last year posted gross profit of 38 million euros (137.8 million RON), an increase of approximately 38% in euros from the previous year. At the same time, the turnover of Continental Automotive Products went up by over 33% in euros last year, to approximately 217 million euros (786.6 million RON), which makes the Germans the biggest players on their respective market in Romania in this respect. The Germans are slightly ahead of Michelin Romania, the domestic branch of the French tyre maker, which posted about 200 million-euro (727.3 million RON) turnover last year. The increase in Michelin's business, some 40% in euros had exceeded that of Continental in terms of speed, but the French have been operating at a loss for a number of years and are to step into the black this year, they estimate. Continental has been present on the Romanian market since the late '90s, when it made the decision to invest 100 million euros in a factory in Timisoara. The Germans later spent another 70 million euros in expansion, with the factory set to reach a production capacity of 16 million tyres a year by 2008, the company's officials say. The list of international competitors with manufacturing operations in Romania will grow larger this year with the entry of Italy's Pirelli Group, set to open a high-performance tyre factory in Slatina, as a result of an approximately 110 million-euro investment.
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