The automotive industry sector expects a record year of exports this year, associated with the production of the vehicle assembly plant of the Nordex firm that is destined mainly for the Brazilian marketand to a lesser extent to Argentina and other countries in the region.
At the end of last year, the company owned by the Argentine businessman, Manuel Antelo, cobegan to produce vehicles for the Ford brand, specifically the Transit model utility vehicle. In this industrial plant, assembly has also been carried out for several years. de two light utility vehicles of the Peugeot and Citroën brandsand the Kia Bongo light truck is also assembled.
as he knew The Observer Based on sources from the automotive sector, the Montevideo plant will start producing in the run of the second semester a medium Peugeot Landtreck model pick-up to supply Mercosur and Latin America. The announcement could be made in the middle of the year.
This has not been officially confirmed by the Nordex authorities nor by the authorities of the Stellantis Group (Peugeot-Citroën-Fiat Chrysler) but it has been an open secret both in Uruguay and Argentina since last year.
Lhe Nordex plant is the only one currently operating in the country —after the closure of Lifan in San José— and directly employs some 620 people. This year will have some 800 officials which plans to expand to something more than 1,000 jobs next year as production volumes increase.
In 2020 the Uruguayan assembly plant will produce some 25 thousand units for different brands and next year he plans to manufacture some 30 thousand units. That is the production floor, but twice as many units could be made in the future to the extent that the health of the Brazilian economy —the main destination— allows it and there is more market.
In the accumulated January-February, Nordex was the country’s seventh exporter and the main seller to Brazil. The export volume at the end of the year will be about US$ 500 million generated through Nordex, as projected. If there are no setbacks, a historical maximum in foreign sales of the Uruguayan automotive industry will be broken in 2022.
“It is the only plant in Uruguay and I realized that something could be done by making an investment, modernizing it and turning it into a plant specializing in utility vehicles, which is a problem for the vast majority of factories because of their size and because the volumes are small. Now, those volumes for us are gigantic”, he said in an interview with The Observer the president of the Antelo Group, Manuel Antelo.
Diego Battiste
The businessman has been living in Uruguay for almost a decade, where he also has other investments such as the Santa Rosa group, Car One and the Decathlon sports store. TOntelo highlights the country’s stability and respect for the rules of the game, something that is key to doing business and developing long-term projects.
“It is a different country in the sense of the stability it has, the respect it has among politicians, they compete but they respect each other. Uruguay has been governed by the left and by the right and there are no drastic changes, like everything that was done before is wrong and everything that was done after is good. Policies continue. So, that for investors is very important. We are investing here for the very long term and the fact that policies are not changed is fundamental. Uruguay is an attractive country in many aspects. In addition, I came to live here and with my children, which is not a minor issue, “said Antelo.
Strong dynamism of exports at the start of the year
In February, sales abroad of vehicles showed a strong increase (175%) in the year-on-year comparison, significantly influencing the monthly variation of the total exported. The increase is largely explained by sales of the Ford company.
The vehicles ranked 10th in the February export ranking, with sales of US$ 34 million. Placements went to Brazil (US$28 million) and Argentina (US$6 million). In the accumulated figure for the year, vehicle exports reached $56 millionwell above what was recorded a year ago, according to data from Uruguay XXI.
