The Internet speed, along with the speed of transportation, will be increasingly important in the auto and logistics industries, as the local market will want to keep up with the economies in Central Europe.
Beyond the need for modern infrastructure, Romania needs to join the Schengen area, to be able to make the best use of the Constanta harbor and be able to export the cars assembled by Ford in Craiova and Automobile Dacia in Mioveni faster.
“We now have a traffic of about 2 million containers a year in Constanta. If we join the Schengen Area, we could be talking a 5-7-10 times higher multiple and an example of that is the Koper harbor in Slovenia. Constanta is the largest workforce hub untapped in Romania, which is well connected by air, railway, harbor and roads,” said Sorin Preda, CEO of developer Global Vision.
Gabriel Sicoe, chairman of the association of carmakers in Romania (ACAROM), said that if Romania wanted to stay competitive it had to pay attention to quality, costs, and deadlines, including transports and logistic. This will enable companies to increase local integration and new components will be possible to buy in Romania instead of being imported.
As for the local auto market, Attila Szabo, Ford Romania CEO, estimates vehicle registrations will reach 170,000 or even 178,000 units this year at best, up from 158,000 in 2018, but the change of the pollution regulations will put pressure on actors on the market. The segments with the highest growth include the small SUVs, where both Ford and Dacia are present (EcoSport and Duster).
ZF Transport, Logistics & Automotive Summit 2019 was organized on Tuesday by ZF with support from Microsoft, Global Vision, Bosch, SIXT Group, P3 Logistics Parks, SAP, Element Industrial, BMF Group, Electrogroup and MAN-MHS Truck&Bus.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)