Cars: Romania produces 5pct of all motor vehicles cars registered in the EU

Romania produces 5% of all motor vehicles currently registered in the European Union (EU), while the national automotive industry generates about 13% of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Secretary General of the Association of Romania's Automobile Manufacturers (ACAROM) Adrian Sandu told a specialist debate on last Thursday."The automotive industry was, is and will continue to represent one of the main economic sectors of Romania. The turnover generated in 2023 reached EUR 33 billion euros, approximately 13% of Romania's GDP and an export percentage of over 27% of total national exports. For 2024 we have not yet received the balance sheets at the end of the year, we hope to have the same growth, somewhere around EUR 35 billion turnover, based on the fact that production at Dacia was good, and at Ford it was growing. At the end of 2024, we witnessed a 9.17% increase in vehicle production, to 560,000 units. Romania is currently ranked fifth in Europe in terms of motor vehicle production. Romania manufactures 5% of all cars registered in the European Union, so we are doing well and very well in terms of exports. We saw some figures last week in a study in which it was said that our automotive exports were EUR 43 billion and imports 45 billion, which meant that the balance related to the automotive sector is a negative one. I want to tell you that there was a mistake in that study published in the press, which also included the other means of transport, not only cars, but also trains, buses, trolleybuses and trams," said Sandu.According to the ACAROM official, the trade balance in terms of the automotive industry is favouring Romania."Romania exports much more than it imports. We import new components, vehicles on the Romanian market, but we export much more. Exports are somewhere around EUR 30-31 billion, and imports are a maximum of EUR 23-24 billion. We are somewhere in a good place. However, we had problems, there were export difficulties caused by the non-accession to Schengen, which posed problems for us in terms of waiting times at customs and the fluidity of transport both in the entry and exit areas. Now we can be glad that, indeed, we have a more fluid transport, but the customs area between Turkey and Bulgaria remains, given the fact that we supply a number of components from Turkey, but we also export vehicles through Turkey and to Turkey. There are still quite high waiting times."He added that, in terms of national transport infrastructure, Romania needs development on all levels."We must say, obviously, that we do not only need road transport infrastructure, we do not only need highways, but we need railways brought to an appropriate standard. We see here that things are moving, but a little slower, because we have the transport lanes where there are still speed restrictions of 20 - 30 km/h. The speed of freight transport in Romania is much, much lower than that of Western Europe. So, we go to customs with a maximum of 25 km/h, average freight transport speed, after which we increase to 40-60 kilometres, average speed, including waiting and transit times. We need to upgrade the rail transport network both to the west of Europe and to the east, to the port, because we intensively use the Port of Constanta as a transport of both vehicles produced in Romania and for components," said the ACAROM representative.He participated in a professional debate on exports as the engine of economic growth organised by the Coalition for Freedom of Trade and Communications (CLCC).