The national production of vehicles reached 48,746 units in March, 12.9% more than in the same month of 2021 and almost 30% above last February, especially supported by exports that rose 10% year-on-year, reported the Association of Automotive Factories (Adefa).
In this way, the automotive industry reached in March the highest number of units produced for a month since August 2018 when 49,335 vehicles left the terminals, according to the Adefa historical series.
“The level of industrial activity in March maintains the growth trend that we have been registering for a year,” said Martín Galdeano, president of the entity that brings together the terminals located in the country.
Beyond the positive trend in demand for models produced in the local market, Galdeano – who is also president of Ford Argentina – said that the sector is “attentive to the evolution of some issues that pose a significant challenge for the industry and negatively impact the flows of the value chain and the potential production volumes of the companies”.
“Among the most significant are the global problems of supplying semiconductors and logistics, and the changes in the conditions of payments abroad, recently introduced by the Central Bank, which could impact growth projections given the difficulty of the value chain. to obtain external financing within the established terms”, said the head of Adefa.
In March, with 21 business days of activity, the data for the month showed that the automotive terminals produced 48,746 units, 29.4% more than February and 12.9% higher than the 43,160 vehicles that were produced during the 20 days of operations of March 2021.
In the accumulated figure for the first quarter, the sector produced a total of 105,058 vehicles, 17.7% more than the 89,277 units in the same period in 2021.
Terminal forecasts show the possibility of reaching a total of 500,000 units throughout 2022.
The Adefa report also reported that the volume of exported vehicles was 24,623 units, which showed an improvement of 23% compared to February, and if the comparison is compared to the same month of 2021, the sector registered an increase of 10% on shipments.
In the accumulated January-March, the terminals exported 53,945 units, 9.3% more than the 49,373 units that were sent to various markets in the same period last year.
In this segment, Brazil, with 32,608 vehicles, remains the main export destination for Argentine terminals, representing 60.4% of the total, followed by Central America (9.5%), Peru (7.7%), Chile (7%), Colombia (4.3%) and Mexico (2.2%).
Finally, regarding wholesale sales, the report showed that in March the automotive sector as a whole sold 33,827 units to the dealer network, 33% more than February deliveries and 4.5% above the volume. the same month last year.
In the first quarter, 79,406 units were sold to the network, 8% below the volume (86,338) registered in the first quarter of the previous year.
At the end of last week it was reported that the sale of 0 kilometer cars registered a 7% decrease in March compared to the same month of 2021, while compared to last February it marked an improvement of 17.7%, according to the Association of Automotive Dealers (Acara).
