Ford suspends production at Craiova plant for nine days

Ford has announced that production of both vehicles and engines at the plant in Craiova will be suspended for nine working days next month amid volatility in the European car market, according to Mediafax.

“A volatile European car market, still recovering from the economic crisis, as well as the overall diversification of the B segment have impacted the sales of our B-Max model. Against this background, Ford Romania continues to adjust the production volumes at the plant in Craiova and plans a 9-day suspension of production in both the vehicle division and the engines one in September. We will keep monitoring the market and adjust production volume according to the existing demand”, Ana-Maria Timis, spokeswoman for Ford Romania told the newswire.

The American automaker entered the Romanian market in 2008 when officially took over Automobile Craiova, at the Craiova plant being produced the Ford B-Max models and the EcoBoost engines. Ford started the B-Max model assembly in 2012, a year later initiating a production suspension programme which has been continued in 2014, too.

According to information from the website of the Ministry of Finance, Ford Romania recorded revenues of about 4.8 billion lei last year, generating net profit of nearly 69 million lei, while a year ago the company incurred financial loss of 480 million lei given a turnover of some 2.5 billion lei.