PRAGUE: Czech auto makers turned out 1,174,267 passenger cars in 2012, a fall of 1.73 percent from record-high output in 2011, the Automotive Industry Association said on Monday.
Despite this being the first decline since 2003, the figure represents "the second-highest annual output in the history of the Czech Republic," the association said.
The Czech Republic, an ex-communist EU member of 10.5 million people, is home to three major car plants -- Skoda Auto run by Germany's Volkswagen, South Korea's Hyundai, and TPCA, a joint venture between France's PSA Peugeot Citroen and Japan's Toyota.
In 2011, all three car makers produced a total 1,194,981 cars, accounting for 22 percent of Czech industrial output that year.
Skoda Auto produced 656,306 cars in 2012, a drop of 2.5 percent compared to 2011. Hyundai raised output by 20.7 percent to 303,035 units and TPCA saw its output fall by 20.61 percent to 214,915 cars.
Lorry output rose by 11.67 percent to 1,454 units, bus output fell by 10 percent to 3,217 units, and motorbike output jumped by 101 percent against 2011 to 2,319 units, the association said.
The Czech economy, heavily dependent on car production and exports to western Europe, namely EU powerhouse Germany, has been stuck in recession for a year.
The country's central bank expects 0.9-percent contraction for 2012 before a pick-up with 0.2-percent growth this year. In 2011 the economy grew by 1.7 percent.
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