Carmaker Dacia, one of the biggest companies on the Romanian market and Romania's main exporter, reported an 11.4 billion lei (2.7 billion-euro) turnover last year, up 26.6% on the previous year, according to data published on the company's corporate website, Ziarul Financiar reported.

Thanks to the Duster SUV, which caused a stir on foreign markets, exporting over 81,000 units in seven months in 2010, Dacia, held by French group Renault, managed to increase its turnover amid a declining Romanian economy and a domestic car market that lost a further 25% in terms of volume.

The profit reported by Dacia for 2010 was 300 million lei (71.2 million euro), which compares with 230 million lei in 2009. The profit rate was 2.6%.

Considering that Dacia manufactured over 341,000 cars last year, each car sold on the Romanian market or exported fetched the company a profit of nearly 200 euros, according to ZF calculations. Dacia never specified what its net profit per car is or how much it costs to manufacture a car.

The operating profit, which reflects the company's core activity, went up by 322 million lei.

Surprisingly, while last year's profit was higher than that recorded a year before, the tax levied on the profit in 2009, was 34 million lei (8.5 million euros), which compares with 60.6 million lei in 2009.

Source: Ziarul Financiar