In January, 7.8% fewer 0 km motor vehicles were sold than in the same month of 2021according to data published by the Automotive Trade Association of Uruguay (ACAU).
The union —whose brands and companies it represents make up more than 80% of the local market— registered 3,439 acquisitions by Uruguayan consumers in the first month of the year, compared to 3,732 counted 12 months ago.
ACAU
In dialogue with The Observer, the manager of ACAU, Ignacio Paz, was not worried about the performance of the first month of the business year. “It may have been something conjunctural, always to get a moderately solid analysis one has to look at a longer period of time“, he specified. If it is not a temporary loss, he estimated that it will only be noticed with the numbers of, at least, the entire first quarter.
In addition, he warned that there are “very clear problems worldwide with freight,” which affected one of the leading brands in utility vehicles, since it had problems delivering to its customers on time. sales in the category utilities dropped by 345 vehicles between one January and another, more than enough to explain the overall drop of 293 railcars in all divisions. In other words, excluding the utility segment, there was an increase in sales of 0 km.
Outlook for the year
“If there are no major changes in the rules of the game, both internal —such as taxes— and external —based on any price rises there may be— a year similar to 2021 can be expectedPaz predicted. “And 2021 was good,” he recalled.
“Since 2017 a sustained fall began until 2020, which was the pandemic, and from there the recovery began. yese reached last year the average of the last decadewhich is already a lot considering that the pandemic continues to cause difficulties,” said the ACAU manager.
In 2021, ACAU recorded 51,737 vehicle sales 0 km. That number involved more than 15 thousand units above the 2020 figure (36,398 vehicles), a 42% growth compared to that year, when the economic situation severely punished private consumption.
The manager of the dealers union also recalled that the economy of the automotive sector is “100% dollarized”, for which the stability shown by the greenback last year helped the business. If the trend continues, “it is a factor in favor.” In fact, the dollar accumulates a drop of more than 2% so far this year.
“The other thing we look at is the Consumer confidence index, which is the state of mind of people when purchasing a durable good such as a vehicle”.
The index prepared by the Catholic University and the consulting firm Equipos is located in the area of moderate optimism since October, for the first time since February 2020, before the outbreak of the coronavirus in the country.
UCU
The country is the only one in the optimistic zone since then, among the four evaluated. Argentina, Brazil and Chile remain pessimistic so far, with a distance from Uruguay.
“There is wind in favor in the spirit of the people“, highlighted Paz. This greater optimism of consumers, for the manager, is accompanied by the general performance of the economy. “We are reading that there is less unemployment, people are leaving unemployment insurance, that there is an absolute record of exports, that there are a large number of investment projects —which often brings with it the purchase of vehicles—, well then… If this is maintained, it is expected to have a year similar to the previous one.“, he synthesized.
