Yeah March was the worst month for car salesreasonably April had to feel it in the Industrial production. It’s pure mathematics. If much less is sold than expected, the production flow must be adapted so as not to stop, with the associated costs and problems it has, and so as not to produce a stock that represents costs that are not recovered.
Thus, with the end of the fourth month of the year, the Association of Automotive Manufacturers (ADEFA)published this Monday its monthly automotive production report with April figures, which reflected the situation of the sector, affected not only by local sales but also by exports.
In April, they were manufactured in the 13 production plants located in Argentina, 42,974 units, which means a slight decline of 0.4% compared to the 43,159 vehicles manufactured in March. As additional data that serves to compare industrial flow, in April there were 17 business days versus 18 in Marchwhich means that there is no additional effect due to fewer production days.
However, the number that is always convenient to use to buy a scenario with another similar one for reasons of seasonality and market, is the year-on-year comparisonwhere the April figures represent a production drop of 21% compared to the same month in 2023, when 54,399 cars and light utility vehicles were manufactured.
In the calculation that accumulates the first four months of the yearArgentine car factories produced 146,267 vehicles, which confirms a 22.6% drop compared to the reference figures for 2023, which were 188,973 units.
At the level of exportsthe volume of vehicles sold in other markets was 20,611 units. These numbers are more worrying than production for local sales, since in the face of the decline of the own market, exports are the safe passage to maintain the production of a factory. The decrease compared to March was 12.2%, and in relation to April 2023, the drop was even greater, with 32.9% less exports.
In this item, the accumulated from the first quarter of 2024 showed a number of 82,981 exported units, which is also a considerable drop at the interannual level that reached the 15.7% less than in 2023.
“As we had been anticipating, in the month of April the main variables of the sector continued to show an adaptation to the new economic reality,” he said. Martín Zuppi, President of ADEFAin relation to the figures for the month of April for the production and export of automobiles.
However, the latest government announcementsfor which the benefit for incremental exports will be recovered, and taxes will be lowered for production, such as those referring to temporary imports and auto parts, are signs that encourage a recovery of the sector.
In this regard, Zuppi expressed that the manufacturers are “very satisfied with the measures promoted by the Government to improve export competitiveness of the sector and reduce the cost of investments, since they are essential taking into account the productive export profile of the industry and the importance of attracting new projects in a context of high competition with other countries in the region. Finally, the executive who is also the highest ranking in Stellantis Argentina Since last February, he said that “we have to continue working in the same direction to reactivate the internal market.”
Finally, with regard to wholesalethe automotive sector sold 22,450 units to the dealer network in the month of April, another negative number since it implies a decrease of 25.6% less compared to deliveries in March and 33.6% below the volume of the same month last year. Between January and April, a total of 101,802 units were sold to dealer networks, 18% below the 124,119 units in the first four months of 2023.
