The plant in Romania’s Mioveni, Arges county, must remain competitive against other Renault plants, such as the one in Morocco, said Nicolas Maure, general manager of Romanian carmaker Dacia.

According to him, easy access to the border and keeping labor costs at a certain level are some of the elements that would help the plant in Romania to remain competitive.

“It is very important for us to have easy access to the border in Arad, and this is a priority that we’ve communicated to the Government. According to our calculations, we would save EUR 30 per vehicle if there was a highway,” said Maure, quoted by local news agency Mediafax.

However, according to the general manager of Dacia, there are also other factors to be considered for the plant’s competitiveness, such as “labor costs, which must be maintained at a certain level, otherwise the plant in Tangier (Morocco), which is a new factory, is becoming more and more efficient and might be compared to the one in Mioveni”.

He stated that the French group Renault doesn’t plan to leave Romania, but on the other hand, considering the plant in Morocco is more and more competitive, is important for Romania to also keep its competitiveness to be able to export to markets in Western Europe, reports Mediafax.

Romanian President Traian Basescu stated earlier this month that Dacia’s plant in Pitesti might lose the assembly line if the Pan-European Corridor IV is not completed. He added that Romania might lose many investments if the corridor, including the Pitesti-Sibiu highway, is not completed.

Dacia, owned by French Renault, upped its sales by 19 percent last year, to some 430,000 units, France remaining the car maker’s main market. Sales in Romania were up by 12.4 percent, to some 24,000 cars.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com