September 21 (SeeNews) - French automaker Renault will move its Dacia Logan MCV production line from Romania to its plant in Tangiers, Morocco, in the first quarter of 2017, French media reported on Wednesday.
The move has been announced by the director of Renault's plant in Morocco, Jean-François Gal, according to French business magazine L'Usine Nouvelle.
You can download the 2024 Automotive industry in Southeast Europe report here
Renault Romania and Dacia officials declined comment when contacted by SeeNews.
Currently, Logan MCV is produced at Dacia's plant in Mioveni, Arges county, southern Romania.
Jean-François Gal also said that the Morocco plant will need 20 million euro ($22.2 million) investment in order to sustain the new production line, L'Usine Nouvelle reported. The Tangiers plant currently manufactuers other Dacia models: Sandero, Dokker and Lodgy.
Both Dacia and Renault officials have repeatedly criticized the Romanian authorities for the lack of a motorway linking Sibiu with Pitesti, which would allow the Romanian car maker to export more rapidly to the Western markets.
Dacia's sales in the EU rose 10.5% on the year to 283,420 units for the first eight months of 2016, according to preliminary data from the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association, ACEA.
Romanian car maker Automobile Dacia, a unit of France's Renault posted a net profit of 447.9 million lei ($113 million/99.5 million euro) in 2015, up 20.4% on the year, while turnover increased 1.8% to 19.16 billion lei.
Worldwide sales of Renault under its Dacia brand rose a modest 0.1% to 339,179 vehicles last year. The most popular models were the Duster SUV and the updated Logan and Sandero models.
In March, Renault group named Yves Caracatzanis as new director general of Dacia and Renault Romania.
Renault bought Romania's Automobile Dacia, an ailing state-owned company at the time, in 1999.
Dacia topped the SeeNews ranking of the biggest companies in Southeast Europe by total revenue for 2014, surpassing Romanian oil and gas firm OMV Petrom.
(1 euro = 4.4509 Romanian lei)
Automobile Dacia SA is among the biggest companies in SEE. You can download our SEE Top 100 ranking
here or subscribe to our free Top 100 newsletter
here