11 November 2021
Romania is one of Europe’s strongest growing economies and offers excellent prospects for UK automotive companies. Hosting 2 OEMs: Renault Dacia and Ford, as well as benefitting from foreign investments from Tier 1 and 2 suppliers such as Bosch, Continental, Daimler, Federal-Mogul Autoparts, Marquardt, the industry represents one of Romania’s most important economic drives of national interest.
Despite tough competition, there is demand for suppliers in producing electric and electronic systems, tyres, car seats, steering wheels, or plastic component manufacturers, which creates a wide range of opportunities for Tier 1-3 British suppliers.
This SMMT webinar partnered with Department for International Trade in Bucharest looks at Romania and some of these upcoming opportunities. We will be joined by speakers including DACIA Renault, Ford, Invest Romania and ACAROM, who will share more about the market and the business opportunities for UK automotive.
Agenda
- SMMT – Ruta Aisthorpe, Head of International and Events
- Department for International Trade – Andrew Noble LVO, British Ambassador to Romania and Emanuela Cristescu, Trade Development Adviser
- Romanian Association of Car Manufacturers (ACAROM) – Adrian Sandu, General Secretary
- DACIA Renault – Cristian Nevzoreanu, Communication & CSR Director
- Ford – Viorel Nuta, Senior Purchasing Manager
- Invest Romania – Alexandru Mitroi, Senior Adviser
- Closing remarks / Q&A
If you would like to read more about the Romanian automotive industry, click here to read an article in the August edition of the SMMT International Newsletter by our guest writer Emanuela Cristescu at the Department for International Trade in Bucharest.
Speaker bios
Mr Andrew Noble LVO, British Ambassador to Romania
Andrew Noble LVO joined the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in 1982. He was most recently Her Majesty’s Ambassador to Algeria and has also served in Germany South Africa and Greece.
Ms Emanuela Cristescu, Trade Development Adviser at the Department for International Trade in Bucharest
Emanuela joined DIT 4 years ago as a Trade Development Adviser. She has a strong background on International Business with experience in market research, business matchmaking, and event & project management. She has been supporting strategic trade development work in collaboration with colleagues from Central European Network to promote and develop bilateral trade in the sectors of Energy, Infrastructure, Automotive and Defence and Security. In present, Emanuela leads on the Clean Mobility and Automotive sector including Smart City and proactively scopes opportunities in Romania on Agri-tech, predominantly on precision agriculture. She acts also as a multiplier towards her colleagues in Central Europe Network regarding UK Agri-tech capabilities.
Mr Adrian Sandu, General Secretary at Romanian Car Manufacturers Association (ACAROM)
ACAROM represents the national automotive industry. Mr Adrian Sandu has more than 20 years of experience in the automotive industry, developing projects at national and international level, coordinating internationalization, research and innovation projects for the development of the automotive sector in Romania. In the same time, he represents ACAROM in the European Car Manufacturers Association (ACEA)’s Liaison Committee.
Mr Cristian Nevzoreanu, Communication & CSR Director at Renault Group Romania
Extensive international experience (France, Japan, Middle East, Romania) in Renault Group since 2000 in: new vehicle project management, marketing, sales, public affairs, communication & CSR.
Associative experience in automotive industry in ACAROM (board member 2012 – 2021) and Romanian Automotive Partnership (Executive secretary 2011 – current).
Mr Viorel Nuta, Senior Purchasing Manager at Ford Motor Company
Viorel Nuta has started working in the procurement field in 1995 and since Ford acquired the Plant in Craiova in 2008 served on different positions in Production Purchasing and Indirect Purchasing, such as Purchasing Launch Manager, Lean Supplier Optimization manager Ford of Europe, S/Manager Industrial Materials Ford of Europe.
In the current role of S/Manager Purchasing Prototypes Ford of Europe and Emerging markets, Viorel is active in the field of Production supplier localization in Romania and East of Europe.
Viorel graduated Craiova University, having a Bachelor degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Master in Management of production and logistics.
Mr Alexandru Mitroi, Senior Adviser at InvestRomania (Ministry of Economy, Entrepreneurship and Tourism)
With a 15 years of experience in Foreign Direct Investment attraction, Mr. Mitroi is presently Senior Adviser with InvestRomania for the past 10 years. On this position he advised international investors in various industries ranging from Automotive, Aerospace or Agribusiness to IT, Outsourcing and Energy. In this position he promoted Romania as an attractive location for investment, working with local authorities and other stakeholders that are also very important part of this process. Previous to that, he worked as Business Development Manager for an industrial developer in Romania, working mostly on automotive projects. Graduate from the Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest, with a degree in Business Administration (English-French department).
