November 22 (SeeNews) - Romania manufactured 191,485 passenger cars in the first 10 months of 2007, up 11.9% on the year, the Romanian Car Producers and Importers Association (APIA) said on Thursday.
The total output of the country's automotive industry through October, including trucks and commercial vehicles, was 198,278 vehicles, up 9.3% from the year-ago period, APIA said in its monthly bulletin.
Combined exports by the two Romanian car makers, Dacia and Daewoo Automobile Romania, went up by an annual 42% to a total 94,938 cars, boosted by Dacia's no-frills Logan model. Dacia sells the Logan in more than 40 countries. French car maker Renault owns 99.4% of Dacia, which launched Logan in September 2004.
In September, Romania and Ford Motor Company signed a deal for 72.4% of Automobile Craiova, the owner of car manufacturer and distributor Daewoo Automobile Romania. Ford Motor Company has pledged to pay 57 million euro ($84.6 million) for the majority stake in Automobile Craiova. In October, the European Commission opened a formal investigation into whether Romania had granted state aid in the privatisation of Automobile Craiova.
In 2006 passenger car output in Romania rose by 15.5% to 201,663 vehicles.
($ = 0.6739 euro)