The exports of the automotive industry fell a 12.2% in Aprilin relation to the previous month, and recorded a decrease in 32.9% in interannual terms. The data arose from the report “Evolution of Production, Exports and Sales to Dealers” prepared and published by the Association of Automotive Manufacturers (ADEFA).
Comparing the first four months from 2024 to the same period in 2023, exports registered a drop of 15.7%. This occurs within the framework of the closing of an April in which Argentina manufactured 42,974 vehiclesa year-on-year decrease of 21%.
Argentina is located among the 40 countries with capacity for automobile manufacturing. This sector represents the 10% of industrial production and generates around 8.9 billion dollars in exports annual. Furthermore, the automotive industry is the second export complex in the countryafter soybeans.
In April, they exported 20,611 unitsa fall of 12.2% compared to March and 32.9% with the same month of 2023.
In it accumulated January-Aprilthe terminals exported 82,981 units, 15.7% less compared to shipments registered in the same period last year.
In salesthe automotive sector sent dealers 22,450 units in Aprila figure that implies a 25.6% less in respect of March and a 33.6% of the last year.
Between January and April a total of 101,802 unitsa 29% less in comparison with the 124,119 units of the first quarter of 2023.
In that sense, since ADEFA expressed their satisfaction regarding government actions intended to improve export competitiveness and reduce investment costs in the automotive industry. Furthermore, they emphasized the need to continue working in the same direction to reactivate the internal market.
Within the framework of this situation, the Government implemented a package with the purpose of strengthen competitiveness and stimulate the growth of the automotive industry, a sector that contributes 10% of total industrial production and supports more than 75,000 jobs.
Another of the measures taken had to do with the export duty exemption for the incremental exportsa policy that has been in force since 2021. This implies that companies in the sector will be exempt on the surplus of their exports compared to 2020 figures.
Furthermore, we will proceed to systematize and digitize the regime of Stock Replenishment (Refueling), a modality that facilitates import of products intended to replace those that were previously imported and then exported after industrial processes.
This practice, particularly beneficial for automotive and auto parts industryallows providers sell components to the terminals without tariffs or taxes, thus improving the competitiveness of the sector in the international market.
Regarding the import of capital goods, the aforementioned measures will allow a reduction of the duty to dies and molds. In this sense, the metal mold tariffs used by the Automotive industry will see a cut that will make the tariffs they pay pass from 35% to 12.6%while the plastic injection molds will pass from 24% to 12.6%.
In addition, starting in June, the tests of Model Configuration Licenses (LCM) with Brazil, eliminating the need to repeat tests already recognized by the neighboring country and vice versa. This will simplify and will accelerate the evaluation process of new models of vehicles, allowing companies to launch products to the market more quickly and facilitating the approval of models in both Argentina and Brazil, which will boost exports.
