São Paulo – Vehicle exports from Brazil amounted to USD 940 million in July, up 24.6% from July 2015, the National Motor Vehicle Distributors Association (Anfavea) reported this Thursday (4). “Even though this was the best month of the year, it is still early to say this is the beginning of a recovery,” Agência Brasil quoted Anfavea’s president Antônio Megale.
But he said the industry is still betting on foreign sales as an alternative to the domestic market. Although motor vehicle manufacturing and sales in Brazil did increase in July from June, they went down year-on-year in July and year-to-date through July.
“The result is good, but could be even better due to the trade agreements that have been discussed with Colombia and with Peru (but are not in effect yet),” the executive said according to Agência Brasil. Megale adds that sales numbers to Argentina were good.
The Arab countries also played a part, importing a combined USD 11.65 million worth of Brazilian vehicles in July, up 86% from July 2015. The numbers do not include agricultural machinery and road implements, which Anfavea only computes into its total numbers.
From January to July, vehicle export revenues stood at USD 5.79 billion, down 8.1% from the comparable year-ago period. However, exports of automobiles, light commercial vehicles, buses and trucks went up 20% to 272.205 units. Exports of agricultural machinery and road implements, however, shrank 16.2% to 5,146 units.
Vehicle exports to Arab countries (not including agricultural machinery and road implements) reached USD 108.4 million from January to July, up 70.6% from January to July of 2015. By the end of the year, Anfavea is expecting foreign sales to have increased by 21.5%.
Brazilian carmakers made approximately 189,900 vehicles in July, a 15.3% drop over July 2015. Year-to-date through July 2016, 1,205,041 units were made in Brazil, down 20.4% from the comparable year-ago period. Total output is seen dropping 16.4% this year.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
