Dacia considers raising production by 100,000 units

Romania”s domestic car manufacturer, Dacia, will decide over the following months whether to raise its production capacity “considerably”, after waiting to see if the strong sales for the Logan so far, both on the domestic market and abroad, hold up for the rest of the year.

“A decision will be made over the following months,” announced Jean Michel Sicre, commercial manager with Dacia.

According to plans announced by Dacia, a number of 175,000 cars will be manufactured this year, rising to 200,000 next year in the wake of 150 million euros in investment scheduled for this year and next year.

The level of sales on the Romanian market so far, combined with the unexpectedly high sales on the markets of both eastern and western Europe, is likely to persuade the French producer to lift production to 300,000 units per year, say car market sources.

To reach such a level, the sources say, Dacia will have to invest large amounts in boosting production beyond that currently available at its Mioveni production site, which has a maximum capacity of 230,000-235,000 units using current production flows and assembly lines.

Increasing exports and (implicitly) production capacity was the main recommendation offered by Carlos Ghosn, the new chairman of Renault group, on his visit to Romania in May.

Dacia sales exploded in the first half of the year, exceeding 79,000 units, which corresponds to an increase of almost 90% on the same period last year.

Apart from its sales of 62,700 cars on the Romanian market, Dacia has seen strong growth on other markets, both in eastern and western Europe.

“On Monday evening we reported sales of 7,235 cars in France, Spain and Germany. This is more than we expected, with France contributing 6,376 sales to these results alone,” said Sicre, while presenting the half-year commercial figures for Dacia.

He chose not to make any forecasts as to sales in Western Europe for the second half of the year.

“It is very difficult for me to make such estimates. But, anyway, I believe we will hit double volumes by the end of the year, compared with what we reported for the first half,” he said.

Dacia expects to produce 175,000 cars this year, with sales on the domestic market accounting for 110,000 units, up from the 90,000 units announced earlier this year.