Dacia Sells In Crisis Time, Too

Cosmina Capalau tradus de Andrei Năstase)
Ziarul BURSA #English Section / 12 ianuarie 2009

Dacia remains the leading carmaker on the Romanian market, despite a 17% year-on-year decrease in sales in 2008. At global level, despite the crisis taking a serious toll on the entire industry, Dacia managed to achieve an 11.7% sales growth to 257,000 new cars.

Dacia-Renault-Nissan Commercial Director Jacques Daniel on Friday briefed a press conference on the group"s commercial results, which indicate that the Dacia Logan continues to lead the respective market segment with over 51,000 units sold in Romania. Dacia Logan MCV and Sandero generated sales of 15,175 and, respectively 8,916 units in the last year.

Daniel believes that, although the European market has experienced a "brutal decline," the group"s commercial strategies enabled Dacia to continue to achieve significant sales in Romania, despite a 17% decrease in volume from end-2007. Daniel also pointed out that the four new models - Logan Pickup, Sandero, Logan Sedan and Logan MCV - played a decisive role in Dacia sales in 2008.

Amid a 4.8% decline on the global car market, Renault reported a 4.2% decrease in sales and a 3.6% share of the global market. At local level, Renault sales dropped 31.8% in 2008. Jacques Daniel pointed out that massive imports of used cars and the lending crisis had caused a significant decrease of the car market in Romania and, therefore, of the Renault sales on this market.

Dacia workers stage protest against used car imports

Some 5,000 workers of the Dacia Renault plant in Arges County will stage a protest in Mioveni on 13 January 2009 starting at noon. The workers are convinced that the decision to lift the environmental tax on cars is jeopardizing hundreds of thousands of jobs in the Romanian car industry.

The National Union Federation (BNS) and the Dacia Union have estimated that some 100,000 employees will be affected if the companies in the Romanian car industry are forced to close. The workers are concerned with a significant increase in used car imports to the loss of Romanian-made car sales.

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