Car plants in Slovakia produced 571,071 vehicles last year, which represents a year-on-year increase of over 300,000 cars, Jozef Uhrík, president of Slovakia's Automotive Industry Association (ZAP), told the TASR newswire on April 8. “We achieved record-high production in the three car plants that operate in Slovakia,” said Uhrík. As a result, Slovakia has become the world's leading producer of cars per capita, an indicator that stands at 105.7 cars per thousand inhabitants.
According to Uhrík, for the first time the combined production of the Žilina-based Kia and Trnava-based PSA Peugeot Citroen plants surpassed that of Volkswagen in Bratislava, which has been active in Slovakia the longest. The total number of cars produced in Slovakia should soon reach 640,000 per year, he said. Last year, vehicles comprised 40 percent of Slovakia's total exports, with all three plants ranked among the top ten Slovak exporters.
Uhrík also noted that Slovakia's trade deficit for 2007 (€660 million) stood at one of its best levels since Slovak independence in 1993. Moreover, the country enjoyed a rare trade surplus with the U.S.A. (€620 million) last year. TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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