Ford Romania exceeded its total 2017 turnover in the first half of 2018, which was up 122 percent at about RON 5.4 billion, meaning that the company could soon become the second biggest exporter in Romania and one of the top five biggest companies at the local level, up from 17th place.
The American company has already started an investment program of EUR 200 million and the recruitment of another 1,700 employees, as a second model will enter in production in Craiova next year.
The strong growth is due to the production of the EcoSport SUV, one of the best-selling small SUVs in Europe, which started last October. Ford now has the opportunity to climb to second in the list of exporters, ahead of Daimler’s (Star Assembly) gearbox.
Last year, for example, only five companies – Automobile Dacia, two companies from the OMV-Petrom group, Rompetrol Rafinare and Kaufland – went over the RON 10 billion threshold.