“Romania’s economy is not doing bad at all. It had the highest growth in the European Union last year,” Budinsky said.
The performance is not sensational but what really matters is that the economy is not dragging the company down and continues to have great development potential, he added.
The economic growth of 3.5% in 2013 brought the gross domestic product to 98.4% of its 2008 level. Romania has surprisingly slid into technical recession after two consecutive quarters of decline. Second quarter GDP was 1% lower in real terms than in the first quarter, according to seasonally adjusted data, after the first quarter decline compared with the fourth quarter of 2013 was 0.2%.
Analysts have revised their full-year GDP growth forecasts to 2-2.5% or are considering to cut estimates.
DB Schenker posted EUR94.2 million revenue last year, up 15% on the previous year, according to Finance Ministry data. Last year was the fifth year of growth in a row for the company.
DB Schenker is seeing strong growth in the automotive industry, as most of the largest manufacturers are already in Romania. It is important to have a strong customer base and a balance between old and new customers, Albin Budinsky says.
The company’s automotive customers include Dacia, Ford and component manufacturers.
Net profit fell to EUR3.4 million last year, from EUR3.5 million in 2012 and the number of employees went down from 1,115 in 2012 to 1,055 in 2013.
DB Schenker’s goal is to consolidate its market leading position, its boss says. To attract more automotive customers it started a campaign aimed at companies looking for ‘just in time’ delivery services, something specific to car manufacturers.
The biggest challenges the transport and logistics company faces come from automotive companies, especially when it has to make ‘just in time’ deliveries, because any delay in the delivery disrupts the manufacturing process, Budinsky explains.
The revenue of the automotive component manufacturers will increase from EUR10.7 billion in 2013 to more than EUR20 billion by 2025, since the global component market will grow from EUR406 billion to EUR600 billion, according to the data of the association of automotive manufacturers in Romania ACAROM.
The revenue of the automotive sector rose by 20% year-on-year to EUR15.9 billion in 2013, EUR5.2 billion of which generated by car production and EUR10.7 billion by automotive component production.
DB Schenker’s CEO says his company will post growth in revenue again this year, because it had a promising start to the year and the first half was not bad at all. However, it is too soon to be talking numbers, he said.
A lot of this year’s business comes from automotive companies, especially from export and import contracts with component suppliers, DB Schenker officials say.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)