Japanese establish investment in western Romania

Rising costs and increasing price pressures in the car industry have convinced car parts producer Takata-Petri to transfer its steering wheel production from its plant based in Aschaffenburg, Germany, to Romania, according to the German Allgemeine Zeitung daily newspaper.

Almost 400 of the 2,000 jobs at the Germany Takata-Petri plant will be lost as a result. Only the excellence centre, which is to be expanded, will remain in Aschaffenburg.

For Takata-Petri, this is not the first move of this kind on the Romanian market. Two years ago, the company transferred the production of steering wheels for Mercedes cars to its Arad plant from the Czech Republic.

Takata-Petri has owned a plant in Arad since 2001 for the manufacturing of steering wheels for top carmakers, such as BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Nissan and Iveco. Moreover, Takata-Petri was this autumn granted a licence for the construction of a plant for the production of car parts for passenger security (airbags) in Sibiu.

Total investments by Takata-Petri in Romania have reached over 30 million euros, with turnover by the plant located in the Industrial Area of Arad overshooting 35.6 million euros last year.

Two other car parts producers operate out of Arad County: Yazaki and Alcoa Fujikura. Yazaki this February began construction of a plant to produce dashboard parts, in an investment that will come to over 30 million euros. Since last year, Yazaki has also been owner of a car wiring plant in “Crangul lui Bot” industrial park, close to Ploiesti, after an investment of 10 million euros.

Alcoa Fujikura, a partnership between US Alcoa group, the world’s largest producer of aluminium, and the Japanese car parts manufacturer Fujikura, owns two assembly plants for electrical distribution systems in Caransebes and Chisineu Cris. The plants required investment of over 3 million euros, and their main customers are Ford, Audi and Volkswagen.

There is another Japanese company carrying out production in the same area of Romania: SEWS (Sumitomo Electric Wiring Systems). The Japanese own three plants on the Romanian market: in Orastie, Deva and Alba Iulia, with the last two having opened this year. Once the company has finalised these projects, it will achieve a turnover of 50 million euros this year, according to company officials. The production from the plants owned by the Japanese group in Romania is entirely intended for export, with customers including Mazda, Ford, Toyota, Renault, Honda and Rover.
ionut.bonoiu@zf.ro