Fiat Auto Poland produced 36,355 units of the Panda and 500 last month at its Tychy factory, a 30.1 pct rise year-on-year, as it increases capacity to meet European wide demand for the 500.

Last month, Poland's car output reached 75,384 units, a 14.2 pct improvement over the previous month and a rise of 23.9 pct year-over-year. As the leading car maker nationally, Fiat Auto Poland produced 36,355 units last month, a 30.1 pct rise year-on-year.

This surge in production was driven by the Panda city car, which accounted for 56 pct of the Tychy factory's supply and the new Fiat 500 with 39 pct. 14,300 units of the 500 were built as Fiat struggled to cope with an order book that has now passed the 140,000 unit mark.

Fiat led the pace of car production in Poland ahead of Opel with 17,246 units (+4.7 pct). As the brand's most produced car model, with over 11,000 units, the Zafira was followed by the Astra III (3,400) and the Astra II (2,800). Warsaw-based carmaker FSO built 14,031 cars in January (+26 pct year-on-year), led by the Lanos (12,100) and the Chevrolet Aveo (1,900).

With 7,752 cars built last month, Volkswagen Poznan saw its output rise by 47.4 pct, with the Caddy accounting for 7,100 units. January 2008 also saw the share of Polish-made cars being sold locally continuing to drop as carmakers keep ramping up to meet export demand. Local sales accounted for just 2.55 pct (1,924 units) of production last month, while the remaining 97.45 pct (73,460) went to export markets.

Poland's van production totalled 11,798 in January, rising by roughly 40 pct from the previous year. Leading the industry, Volkswagen Poznan built 9,433 units last month (+34.4 pct), followed by Fiat Auto Poland with 2,365 units (+63.7 pct), of which 2,200 were of Panda Van variant and another 163 were the Seicento Van. January 2008 also saw the share of Polish-built vans getting sold in the country stabilising at 5.1 pct (2007: 4.5 pct), while the remaining 94.9 pct went to export markets (2006: 95.5 pct).

Report: Samar