March 31 (SeeNews) - Japan Tobacco International (JTI) will invest 60 million euro ($70.43) to upgrade the production capacities of its factory in Romania, it said on Wednesday.
As a result of the investment programme which will be deployed over the next three years, the volume of cigarettes manufactured in Romania will increase, JTI said in a press release.
The factory located in northern Bucharest on the Pipera industrial platform is expected to play a key role in JTI’s sourcing to the EU markets, the company added.
"JTI Manufacturing will be provided with cutting-edge equipment in terms of technology and production standards," JTI Romania factory lead Jamie Dunlop said.
Romania is the third largest European cigarette manufacturer after Germany and Poland. At present some 70% of JTI Manufacturing Romania's production is exported to some 50 countries. According to the National Institute of Statistics, in 2020, exports totaled over 1.3 billion euro.
Currently, around 500 people work in the factory from a total of over 1,200 JTI employees in Romania.
The two entities of JTI (manufacturing and trading) paid over 4.77 billion lei ($1.14 billion/ 970 million euro) in excise, VAT and other taxes, duties and contributions to the Romanian state in 2020, up 12% on the year.
JTI started its activity in Romania in 1993 as R.J. Reynolds and is one of the first multinationals which invested locally. The company has invested over 250 million euro in Romania so far.
(1 euro=4.9251 lei)