Romania’s industry dragged down by sluggish automobile production in May-October

Romania’s seasonally adjusted production index has decreased in October by 0.9% (-1.7% for the core manufacturing industries) compared to September (MoM), marking the fourth consecutive month of negative performances, according to the latest data released by the statistics office INS.

The annual dynamics is less relevant, given the base effects, but the seasonally adjusted index reveals a visible industrial slowdown since March-April this year.

The automobile industry and oil refining (due to the accident at Petromidia refinery) were mainly responsible for the decline.

The former one delivered in October an output that was 33% inferior to that delivered in October 2019 (before the crisis), while the two-year contraction in the case of the latter was 20%.

Overall, for the whole industry (mining and utilities included), the decline compared to October 2019 was 9.6% (-4.9% per annum), and for the manufacturing sector, it was 13% (-6.7% per annum).

The industrial activity was dragged down in October 2021 by the automobile industry (-3.0% MoM) that has particularly underperformed recently due to the semiconductors crisis, but also by other industries such as pharma production (-13.2% MoM).

In contrast, the oil refining industry has recovered for the second month in a row after Rompetrol’s refinery Petromidia resumed operations at the end of September.

(Photo: Media.ford.com)