Auto sales up 17% in nine months, Romanian-made cars see boost

Car sales on the Romanian market totalled 95,000 units in nine months this year, up 17% up from the year-ago period, the Romanian Carmakers and Importers Association (APIA) statistics show.

The figures reveal an increase of one percentage point from the value posted after the first eight months this year, as sales rose 31% for the Romanian-made vehicles and 14% for the imported cars in September as compared to the year-ago period.

The 16% climb of the auto market in three quarters has met the early-year estimates, which announced a growth pace for the entire year ranging from 15% to 25%.

While the imported vehicles saw a monthly growth pace comprised between 15% and 30%, averaging 22%, the Romanian cars posted a much more dynamic evolution. Thus, in four out of the nine months, sales dropped as compared with last year. In the first three months of the year, Dacia SupeRNova ceased being produced and the Ploiesti-based producer replaced it in its range with the Solenza model in August. In the other five months of the year, sales increased, so the domestic producers managed to boost up sales by some 12%.

Under the circumstances, imports logged over 37,000 units, up from 31,000 units in the first nine months of 2002. The sales of Romanian vehicles amounted to 57,500 units, as compared with less than 50,000 vehicles last year.

The Romanian car production saw the biggest surge last month, when sales totalled over 10,000 units, almost double the previous month’s level. Therefore, the nine-month increase exceeded 10%, up from 3.5% logged in eight months.

ionut.bonoiu@zf.ro