Mexico registered a new record in vehicle production again during February, and with more than 600,000 units in the first two months of the year, it surpassed Brazil as the largest car assembler in Latin America, despite Brazil’s slight recovery.
In February 2018, a total of 328 thousand units were manufactured in Mexican car assembling plants, an increase of 6.2 percent over the same month last year that is justified in the double-digit growth of exports (275 thousand cars, 11.2 percent more).
Domestic sales went down by 7.2 percent, but this has not influenced Mexico’s car production’s record level, according to the Mexican Association of the Automotive Industry (AMIA).
The AMIA, which represents the leading companies in the sector, revised its figures for 2017 and noted that last year the “export of light vehicles exceeded the best historical levels for any year”, with 3.2 million units.
Data from the Mexican automotive sector suggests that the country will once again finish the year as the leader in Latin America in production, even though in Brazil, where the economy grew in 2017 for the first time after two years of recession, they begin to see some improvements.
In February, 213,000 units were produced, 6.2 percent more than the same month last year, and so far this year the Brazilian factories have already mounted 431 thousand units, 15 percent more in the year-on-year comparison.
Sales also point to a slight improvement, with a growth of 19 percent in the first two months, but it is still not enough to rebuild a strategic economic sector that has lost thousands of jobs since 2014.
The National Association of Automotive Vehicle Manufacturers of Brazil (ANFAVEA) noted that there is still high idleness in the factories, since in 2017 only 61 percent of the production lines capacity was used.
The sector in Brazil is asking for the government to approve a new package of fiscal incentives, but the big public deficit and complaints from business partners before the World Trade Organization have stopped the Executive’s aid to date.
Since 2014, Mexico got higher figures than Brazil as the largest vehicle manufacturer in Latin America, and this trend has not stopped, driven by Mexican exports to the United States and Canada.
Last year Mexico passed the barrier of 3.7 million cars produced and surpassed for the third consecutive year Brazil as the largest vehicle manufacturer in Latin America, with more than one million vehicles more than the South American giant.
Source: eluniversal.com.mx
