Romania climbed up a place to sixth in the ranking of automobile producers in Europe, according to European Automobile Manufacturers Association data quoted by Cursdeguvernare.ro.

The country surpassed Italy and remained above Hungary, two countries with much better performances in the past.

The combined output of the two car factories in Romania decreased by only 4% in 2021 compared to 2020, to 420,755.

The slight decline was actually a relative bright performance on a total market that slumped by 7.1% to 10.0 mln units as the car factories have constantly faced semiconductor shortages.

The production in Germany, Europe’s largest producer, collapsed by 13.2% YoY.

Separately, the deep negative performance in western European countries (Germany, Spain, Belgium, Italy) must have impacted significantly the car parts producers that are predominantly located in central and eastern European countries.

(Photo: Supergenijalac/ Dreamstime)

andrei@romania-insider.com