Dacia’s production continued to increase in the first quarter, but only by 4.5% on the year-ago period, to almost 89,400 cars. The growth was largely because of the Logan model, whose production rose by 25% to 30,000 units in the first quarter, while Duster’s only went up by 3%.
The four days in February and five in March of production shutdown at Ford made an impact on first quarter production figures. The US-held plant assembled almost 20% fewer cars, 18,200. Whereas Ford helped production and exports last year, this year it is dragging them down, in the absence of a volume model assembled in Craiova.
Dacia Sandero saw a significant drop in production in the first quarter, by almost 50% to 13,800 units. Almost 23,800 Sanderos were registered in Europe in the first two months of the year, while only 10,240 were assembled in Dacia’s Mioveni plant in southern Romania in January and February. The decline is because of the start of the production of the Sandero model at the Renault plant in Tangiers, Morocco last October.
“The difference between the production in Mioveni and the number of Sandero cars registered in Europe is because of Morocco. Production of Sandero started in Tangiers in October and the plant began exporting it to Europe,” said Anca Oreviceanu, Group Renault Romania’s communication director said.
Renault’s production in Romania could be affected not only by transfer to other countries but by markets like Algeria.
“The Algerian market witnessed a steep decline in the first two months, by more than 50%, and that will affect production in Romania,” Dacia officials added.
Dacia exported almost 37,300 cars under its own brand to Algeria last year, becoming the third best-selling brand there, in addition to the 19,600 Renault Symbols, a higher spec Logan made in Mioveni, as well.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)