The increase in exports and imports, together with the high number of production facilities owned by major multinationals opening in Romania in the past year, is set to boost the business of international road carriers by 20%.
This makes the difference between making a profit and ending up with losses, carriers say.
"We've had months when we didn't have a moment's rest and worked at full capacity, and even those months that were normally regarded as slow turned out to be very good," says Ilie Stoichescu, chairman of Trans Condor, a company that owns 110 trucks and recorded a turnover of 7.6 million euros last year.
There are some 10,000 trucks approved for international road carriage in Romania, and in addition there are a further 1,500-2,000 lower capacity vehicles. Estimates for this business indicate approximately 1 billion euros (987 million euros) for this year.
Radu Dinescu, general secretary of the National Union of Road Carriers in Romania (UNTRR), confirms growth has indeed been achieved this year and says the same trend will hold for the next few years. "More and more multinationals will be relocating their production facilities to Romania and this will boost carrier business. Growth in the international road carriage sector is one of the healthiest there is because it has happened in line with the growth of its clients' businesses," Dinescu says.
Florin Mihut, chief executive of Frigoexpress Oradea, which runs 210 trucks, says the market is indeed on the rise. "The first quarter was slower, but the second was very good, with even higher growth expected for the end of the year," Mihut specified.
Only six operators own more than 100 trucks; the rest of the market is very fragmented.
It was precisely these optimistic expectations for the market that persuaded Alin Trans of Hunedoara, the largest player on the market, to buy a further 100 trucks to add to its fleet of 250.
The Romanian market is attracting the attention of major international and regional players. Germany's Willi Betz, a strong presence in Eastern Europe, is interested in the Romanian market. German-Dutch Weberer (over 1,000 trucks) has recently bought Hungarcamion, Hungary's number three such company, and has opened a logistics office in Miercurea Ciuc to which it has made an initial transfer of 28 trucks. Another name interested in the Romanian market is Transdanubia (Austria), which has already made a few takeover bids.
Ion Lixandru, ITIA Sped chief executive, a carrier with 30 trucks, says Romania will become a very interesting market for the big international names that will soon begin to make offers to buy out domestic players.
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