April 6 (SeeNews) - U.S. carmaker Ford said on Thursday that it plans to hire 976 people this year at its plant in Craiova, in southern Romania, to support Ford EcoSport SUV production set to begin this fall.
The massive recruiting campaign will take the total number of Ford employees in Romania to 3,691, which is 36% more than at present, Ford Romania said in a press release. The company has also increased the number of working robots in the factory by 220 to a total of 550.
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"Ford will consider further opportunities to build new products at Craiova in order to make best use of the entire production capacity and existing technology. We are also discussing with the government to improve infrastructure and logistics in order to maintain the global competitiveness of the Ford plant in Craiova," the company said.
The EcoSport model that will be produced in Craiova will be sold in Europe, except Russia.
In March, Ford said it will spend up to 200 million euro ($213.3 million) to expand the plant in Craiova so as to start assembling the EcoSport small SUV model there.
Presently, EcoSport is produced in Ford's Indian plant in Chennai but as of the autumn of 2017 most of the production will be moved to Craiova, where the SUVs will be assembled. The Chennai plant will continue to make the EcoSport for domestic sales and for other markets.
Ford entered the Romania in March 2008 when it wrapped up the acquisition of a 72.4% stake in Automobile Craiova, the sole owner of car maker and distributor Daewoo Automobile Romania. In 2012, the plant in Craiova launched production of the B-MAX model, which it sells only on the European market. Ford also produces EcoBoost 1.0 litre- and 1.5 litre-engines in Craiova.
($=0.9374 euro)
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