Romanian Carmaker Dacia Sees Record Low Sales 16.7% Dn On Yr, 54.9% Dn In Dec

In December 2007, Dacia sold in Romania 8,037 units, and 101,799 throughout the entire year.

“Dacia sold in December (2008 – e.n.) 3,622 cars, which is a really bad drop,” Dacia vice-president Constantin Stroe told MEDIAFAX Wednesday.

Dacia said in December last year that sales on the local market dropped 52.3% in November and delivered decreased by 13.5% to 81,097 units after the first 11 months of the year.

The carmaker thus records the third annual decline in sales on the local market, following this year’s 16.7% drop.

In 2005, Dacis sold 113,276 units on the local market, which brought a 41.5% increase against 2004, mainly due to the introduction on the market of the car model Logan Sedan at the end of 2004.

This year’s delivery equals that of 2004, when Dacia sold little above 80,000 units.

The number of units sold in December 2008, namely 3,622 units, is the carmaker’s lowest sales level for the month in the last ten years. This neared the level of December 2001, when Dacia sold 3,891 units.

Dacia reached the maximum sales level of the last month in the past ten years in 2004, when it sold 8,846 units on the local market.

The volume of sales in the last month of 2008 confirms the dropping tendency in the past months. December deliveries were down 22.9% against November (4,698 months), while November sales were down 29.5% from October (6,664 units).

Currently, the car plant in Mioveni, southern Romania, is closed to avoid accumulation of stock.

The factory’s production was suspended on October 30 and 31, as well as on November 13 and 14. The production was again halted between November 20 until December 7. Employees resumed work for three days, and as of December 11, 2008 until January 11, 2009 the factory remains closed.

The general manager of Automobile Dacia said at the end of October the unit will not fulfill its objective for 2008 to reach 310,000 -320,000 units for the local market, and estimated 260,000 – 270,000 cars will be sold, due to the effects of the economic-financial crisis and the massive imports of second-hand cars in 2008.