Fiat, VW, Opel car production in Poland hit by eurozone worries
Reprints
Print
Respond
WARSAW -- Poland's car production slowed sharply in March in anticipation of weaker demand from markets in the eurozone, industry monitor Samar said.
Last month, 64,445 units were produced in the country, a decrease of 7 percent over February figures and a drop of 26 percent in year-on-year figures, Samar said.
Poland exports more than 90 percent of the cars produced domestically. Last year, production reached around 825,000 cars and trucks.
Fiat, the country's largest automaker, builds the 500 minicar and Lancia Ypsilon at its Tychy plant. The Italian automaker has a market share of 57 percent in Poland.
Volkswagen produces the Caddy and Transporter commercial vehicles in Poznan and Opel makes several variants of its Astra compact car, including the new Astra GTC in Gliwice.
Overall, vehicle production accounts for around 7 percent of Poland's industrial output.
"This data indicates very large risks for the industrial output, which may slow down to (a growth rate of) below 4 percent in March," said Ernest Pytlarczyk, chief economist at BRE Bank.
Analysts polled by Reuters at the end of March expected the industrial output to inch up to an annual 4.7 percent in March from 4.6 percent in February.
The number of cars and trucks produced in the first quarter fell 17.5 percent after a 7 percent decline in 2011.
Source: Reuters and ANE research
Contact Automotive News
