German group Varta announced that it will continue construction of the new V4Drive battery plant, for which Romania was competing, when "binding commitments from customers are secured," Economica.net reported.

The company said it is constantly evaluating opportunities to expand existing plants "[but] currently, we have stopped all plans for a possible expansion of our presence in Romania and have not continued with an analysis for new production capacities in the country".

Varta was reported in March to be looking at Romania as a potential location for a EUR 1 billion investment in a new unit that would produce batteries for electric cars, according to Roxana Manzatu, a state secretary within the Ministry of Investments and European Projects.

Varta Microbattery has owned a local factory in Braşov since 2014, and in 2019 it received state aid worth EUR 25.3 mln to expand its production capacity. A year later, the company recorded a turnover of RON 407 mln, about 50% higher than in 2019.

andrei@romania-insider.com

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