Local car industry posts EUR 8.1 billion turnover in 2009

The Romanian car industry posted a turnover of EUR 8.1 billion last year, which was 6 percent of the country's GDP. The auto industry is expected to reach a 10 percent weight of the GDP this year, according to Constantin Stroe, head of the Car Makers Association in Romania. The industry turnover was made of cars – EUR 2.6 billion, mechanical components- other EUR 2.2 billion, other components – EUR 3 billion and carriage bodies – EUR 0.15 billion. Romania was the only country in the EU which had a 21 percent increase on the auto production segment, according to Stroe. “In 2010, it would be a great achievement if we reached 90 percent of the 2009 production, which was of 130,000 units. The car segment in Romania will be able to increase due to the low cost system used by Dacia,” said Stroe, who is also the vice-president of Dacia. editor@romania-insider.com