Anfavea results - Brazil January-April vehicle production a record

Marcos Rozen

New vehicle production volume has reached a record high, recovering, by far, the lows registered in 2012. Despite representing a one-digit increase ratio, Brazilian vehicle production during the first 4 months of 2013 closed at 1,168,592 units, representing a new record for the period, which is now the best in the industry's history.
On Tuesday, 7th, Anfavea revealed that January-April vehicle production volume increased a significant 17% when compared to the first 4 months of 2012, when the industry produced less than 1 million units, that is, 999 thousand units. The best first 4-month period in terms of production until now was registered in 2011, with 1,113,000 units.
In addition, April’s vehicle output represented the best monthly volume in the Brazilian automotive industry, reaching 340,865 units. The previous monthly production record was set in August 2012, with 329.3 thousand units.
April's volume represented an increase of 30.7% when compared to the same month in 2012, and an increase of 6.8% when compared to March - production in March was also significant.2 Leading his first monthly press meeting in which the Brazilian automotive industry statistics are presented, the new president of Anfavea, Luiz Moan, said that April's and the year-to-date's record production volumes can be attributed to a combination of positive effects: "Adjustments in production output, various product launches in the market, increased demand, and the Inovar-Auto (program)."
As for the share attributable to the influence of the new automotive regime, despite the fact that it was only recently implemented, the executive said these initiatives began in early 2012 through the effective increase of 30 percentage points on the IPI tax applied on imported vehicles. "As a result, the share of vehicles imported from abroad has stabilized during the past months, allowing the local vehicles to supply the portion relative to the market’s expansion."
Average daily production volume in April totaled 15,494 units, divided among the month's 22 working days. When compared to April 2012, which had 20 working days, this represented an increase of 18.8%. However, when compared to March, which also had 20 working days, the volume represented a drop of 3%.
During the past 12 months, from May 2012 to April 2013, production volume totaled 3.5 million units, slightly above Anfavea's projection for this year - which is 3.49 million units. The association, however, preferred to maintain its projections, given that figures from June of last year until the end of 2012 should be higher.3 The industry's workforce expanded 0.5% when compared to March, and 5.4% when compared to April 2012, closing the month with 150 thousand workers. Last month, the net loss of 46 job positions in the agricultural machinery segment was more than offset by the net creation of 823 jobs at the vehicle manufacturers. According to Moan, the majority of these jobs were created by truck manufacturers.