Renault to invest another 600m euros in Romania

Renault, owner of the Automobile Dacia plant, has announced a 600 million-euro investment plan for the next three years for production projects in Romania. The company opened a new plant yesterday on the industrial platform in Mioveni – Renault M?canique Roumanie (RMR), following a 146 million-euro investment. The new plant will manufacture gearboxes for 8 Renault and 7 Nissan models. “After Ford announced 670 million-euro investments in the wake of the takeover of the plant in Craiova, Dacia stepped up to the challenge and announced investments worth 600 million euros for the next three years,” said Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu at the opening of RMR. According to Renault representatives, overall investments will amount to 214 million euros when the programme is completed in 2010. The plant, which covers 29,000 square metres, will manufacture 5,000 gearboxes a week in its first stage, with the capacity to increase to 10,000 units in its second stage. Fran’ois Fourmont, general manager of Automobile Dacia, said the new plant, which employs 342 people, would bring Renault’s investments in Romania to over 1.2 billion euros. Fourmont added that the state contributed 24 million euros to the RMR project. “The first 18 million-euro instalment was granted today (Tuesday, May 13th), while the remaining 6 million euros will be given after the second development stage has finished,” added Fourmont.