Moreover, car production dropped in July, as well, by 21%, the worst decline rate of the last few years, reaching 35,700 units. July used to be the time of the year with a higher production volume than the previous months, considering both Ford and Dacia’s plants in Craiova and Mioveni undergo maintenance in August, so they do not assemble any cars then.
Dacia assembled more than 209,700 cars in the first seven months, 4.5% fewer than in January-July 2013. Moreover, its production dropped by more than 20% to almost 30,600 units last month. The reasons for this decline include the relocation of more than half of the Sandero model production to Renault’s plant in Tangiers, Morocco, which is now assembling it for Western Europe, Dacia’s main market.
Ford’s production decline was even more serious in July, over 26%, compared with the same time last year, to 5,130 cars. In all, the production of the Craiova plant fell by 28% in the first seven months, due to the decline in the sales of B-Max model in Europe.
The model with the highest exports in July 2014 was Dacia Duster, 17,087 units, followed by Ford B-Max, 5,216 units, and Dacia Logan, 4,798 units, with Sandero dropping out of the top three. Dacia Duster also saw the highest exports in January-July, 95,564 units, followed by Logan, 45,582 units and Ford B-Max, 36,521 units.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)