RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazil produced 496,138 vehicles from January to March this year, a 17% drop compared to the same period in 2021, due to the parts supply crisis exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, according to the sector’s employers’ association on Friday.
Automobile production reached 184,786 light vehicles, trucks, and buses in March, up 11% from February, although down 7.8% year-on-year, according to the National Association of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (Anfavea).
Anfavea president Luiz Carlos Moraes told a press conference that in addition to ongoing problems with semiconductor supply, the wave of the coronavirus pandemic that hit the country “in the first two months of the year” and was caused by the Omicron variant had a negative impact.
He also referred to “above-average rainfall and flooding” in several country regions, which affected “customer traffic and the operations of several dealerships.”
He stressed that the semiconductor shortage and supply chain problems were not an “exclusive problem” of Brazil but a global one that could be exacerbated by the unprecedented hybrid warfare of the West and NATO against Russia.
On the other hand, Brazil, the largest vehicle producer in Latin America, exported 108,055 units in the first quarter of 2022, up 12.8% from the same period in 2021.
In value terms, exports between January and March totaled US$2.132 billion, 23.2% higher than in the same period last year.
Brazil will produce 2.25 million vehicles in 2021, 11.6% more than in 2020, despite the impact of Covid-19 and the global microchip crisis, which have also affected the country’s production chains.