RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The production of vehicles grew 2.3 percent in 2019, reported the National Association of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (ANFAVEA) on Tuesday, January 7th.
There were 2.94 million vehicles manufactured, including the segments of automobiles, vans, trucks, and buses. It is the largest annual volume since 2014, the first year before the economic crisis, when automakers produced 3.15 million vehicles.
2019 is the third consecutive year of growth. Since 2018, the rise has been driven only by increased demand in the domestic market, rather than exports. Sales to Brazilian consumers grew 8.6 percent in 2019, to 2.79 million units.
Most of the market increase was driven by corporate customers, such as rental companies, rural producers and fleet owners in general, who buy directly from automakers, without going through the dealerships, and therefore get more favorable discounts.
The growth in production would have been greater but for the drop in sales to other countries, which occurred for the second consecutive year. Due to the crisis in Argentina, the main destination of Brazilian vehicle exports, the volume sold abroad dropped 31.9 percent in 2019, to 428,200 units, the lowest level since 2015, when exports totaled 416,900 units.
Despite the production increase in 2019, automakers dismissed more workers than they hired last year. There were a net 4,013 job vacancies closed, mostly due to the end of the operation of Ford’s plant in São Bernardo do Campo. In December alone, 842 jobs were cut. The sector closed the year with 125,596 employees spread throughout Brazil.
December
In the last month of the year, assembly plants produced 170,500 units, down 3.9 percent over the same month in 2018 and 25 percent compared to November.
In the domestic market, 262,600 units were sold, up 12 percent over the same month a year earlier and 8.4 percent over the November result. Export sales totaled 29,000, down 8.5 percent over December 2018 and 8.6 percent in comparison to November.