Vehicle production in Argentina in the first half of 2004 was 112,907 vehicles, up 49% on the 75,784 units made in the same period of 2003, according to the Argentinean National Automaker’s Federation (Adefa).
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
In the same period, automakers sold 148,035 vehicles, up 173.9% compared with the 54,047 units sold in the first half of last year.
Volkswagen led the market with 22.9% market share followed by Ford (17.5%) and General Motors (13.7%).
But the Argentinean government is not satisfied with this sales performance because only 52,096 vehicles or 35.2% of the vehicles sold were locally made – about 50% were imported from Brazil. In recent years, some automakers, including Fiat and Scania, closed assembly lines in Argentina to centralise production in their brazilian plants.
Exports helped Argentinean automakers to compensate for weak domestic sales. Between January and June 2004 they exported 58,095 vehicles, an increase of 7.2% compared with the 54,216 units sent to other countries in the same period of 2003.
This year, local vehicle manufacturers expect to produce about 200,000 vehicles, an 18% increase over last year. They plan to sell about 240,000 units in 2004, a 55% boost over 2003.
Rogério Louro
