U.S. Ford Motor Co Romanian Plant To Reach Annual Output of 300,000 Units by 2012 – Media

Ford launched on Tuesday the production of its Transit Connect light commercial vehicle at the Craiova plant which it bought for 57 million euro ($82.2 million) last year.

Ford intends to invest 675 million euro in the plant and to raise the number of employees to around 7,000 by 2012, the broadcaster reported, quoting Ford officials.

Ford plans to sell the Transit Connect van in central and eastern Europe, the broadcaster said.

It added that the Transit Connect vans will initially be assembled from car parts delivered from Turkey but from the first quarter of 2010, the parts will start to be produced in Romania.

($=0.693 euro)