“Infrastructure is Romania’s problem today. When we talk about infrastructure, we not only talk about roads and highways, but about all types of transportation, including waterways and railway. On the other hand, manufacturing quality is high here, the engineers are well trained and if infrastructure were more developed surely more investors would come to Romania,” Brassai said.
Half of last year’s 68,000-car production of the plant in Craiova (south of the country) was carried by railway with the help of companies like CFR Marfa and Gefco and the other half by road. Wolfgang Schneider, Ford vice-president for governmental affairs, said after the takeover of the plant that the plan was to ship the cars from Craiova to Constanta via the Danube, but the company changed its mind in the meantime.
“Waterway transportation is cheapest. We need a good road to the harbor of Calafat and from there on by barge to Constanta. Yet we need the Danube dredged to allow use of big barges,” Brassai said.
“Such barges cannot be used at the moment because they would get stuck. Railway is second cheapest and then comes road transportation. To get a competitive cost, one needs to be able to load 300 to 500 cars on a barge. Carmakers in other countries use the Danube for transportation, the same way Germany uses the Rhine.”
As for engine production, the plant in Craiova sped up the pace and hit a new production milestone.
“We increased engine production in Romania. Today (Tuesday i.e.) we made engine number 250,000. It was delivered to North America, to the USA,” Zoltan Brassai said.
Engine production currently stands at 1,000 units per day in Craiova and will keep the same pace by the end of the year. If there is demand for it, production may increase both in 2014 and in 2015.
In all, Ford has invested EUR880 million in the Craiova plant after committing to EUR675 million in the privatization contract. Out of the amount, EUR230 million went to the engine plant where 1,000 of the 3,600 employees of Ford Romania work.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)