Bucharest – Since the onset of the European crisis, Romania has become a production hub for household appliances, an industry worth about €560 million, especially after the investments made by Philips in Orastie (Hunedoara) and by the De Longhi group in the Jucu industrial park (Cluj). The production of household appliances rose from 1.98 billion lei in 2008 to over 2.5 billion lei in 2013 and Arctic, Sageco and De Longhi Cluj now rank among the top 110 exporters. Late last year, the Italian De Longhi group recorded the biggest jump in the ranking of exporters moving from number 213 to number 108, according to the National Institute of Statistics. The plant, built by the Italians in Jucu, recorded in the first half of 2014 a turnover similar to that of the entire 2013 period, approximately €32 million, thanks to its 500 employees. (9Colonne)
