This result means Dacia beat OMV Petrom (SNP.RO) to the top spot for the first time ever, as the latter posted RON18.09 billion consolidated revenue last year, according to a questionnaire the oil company filled and sent to ZF. Up until 2013, no other company had managed to overtake Petrom in terms of revenue.
Dacia’s net profit rose to RON337.4 million from RON277.2 million in 2012.
The revenue was made possible by a record production in 2013, 342,610 cars assembled in Mioveni, 16% more than 2012. This is the Romanian plant’s highest volume so far. Previous peak was recorded in 2011, when it assembled 341,000 vehicles.
This volume turns the plant into the fifth largest in Europe, with a production of 423,718 units (cars and complete knocked-down kits) in 2013, according to a ranking compiled by auto market research company Inovev. Volkswagen’s plant in Wolfsburg, Germany, the largest in Europe, assembled more than 800,000 units, 1.9% more than in 2012.
A factor that helped Dacia’s growth was the decision of the French owner, the Renault group, to start assembling the new generation of Renault Symbol in Mioveni, a model built on the Logan platform.
More than 17% of the cars assembled last year were Renault models, and Symbol accounts for 16% of the total, while the remaining 1% are Sanderos, Logans and Dusters sporting the Renault logo instead of Dacia’s.
Whereas Renault Symbol helped keep production in Mioveni up in 2013 and will continue to do so in 2014, the volumes assembled in Romania will probably decline next year, once a new plant in Oran, Algeria has been inaugurated.
Renault Symbol is now only assembled in Romania, but will start being assembled in Oran, Algeria, as well, as of November, Automobile Dacia officials said. The new plant in that city will assemble only cars from semi-knocked down kits. (EUR1=RON4.4328)
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)