Brazilian vehicle industry rebounds despite global electronic components crisis

The figures for the end of 2021 were issued by the National Association of Automotive Vehicle Manufacturers (ANFAVEA), showing that the Brazilian vehicle industry improved compared to the critical levels of 2020, but still falling short of the potential of internal and external vehicle demand.

“The global semiconductor crisis caused several plant shutdowns throughout the year due to the lack of electronic components, leading to an estimated loss of 300,000 vehicles. For this year, constraints are still expected to due to the scarcity of components, but they will be lower than in 2021, indicating that the recovery will go on,” stated President Luiz Carlos Moraes.

Production

December was the strongest month of the year with 210,900 vehicles produced in it. The year finished with 2,248.3 thousand units, up 11.6 percent from the previous year. As a result, Brazil has regained its eighth spot in the global producer ranking, which it had lost to Spain the previous year. In 2022, an increase of 9.4 percent is expected, with 2.46 million units manufactured.

Domestic Market

The last month of the year, as is customary, saw the largest sales volume, with 207.1 thousand licensed units sold. Nonetheless, it was the worst December seen in five years.

The total reached 2.12 million units, a 3% increase over 2020, keeping Brazil in seventh place in the world, only a few units behind France. ANFAVEA estimates that 2.3 million vehicles will be sold this year, up 8.5 percent from 2021.

Exports

Despite trade restrictions enforced by the Argentine government, the swift recovery following the peak of the epidemic in countries such as Chile, Colombia, Peru, and Uruguay helped improve the Brazilian vehicle industry. As a result, exports increased by 16 percent to 376.4 thousand units from the previous year.

For the first time, Argentina accounted for less than half of all national shipments (34% of the total). Exports increased even more in terms of value, by 37.8%, due to the more representative shipment of cars with higher added value, such as trucks and SUVs. Exports are expected to reach 390 thousand units in 2022, an increase of 3.6 percent from the previous year.

Expectations

At the first press conference of the year, the President of ANFAVEA adopted a tone of moderate optimism. “Despite the economic turmoil and the election year, we are betting on a recovery of all industry indicators, which could be much better if there was a favorable business environment to enact tax restructuring on industrialized products”, concluded Moraes.

Sharing is caring!