August was the second best month for new vehicle sales in Brazil ever – 313,000 units – after March as the excise tax slash intended to stimulate the market ended.
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Sales in the first eight months climbed 10% over 2009. The forecast is for a record year, likely to break the 3.4m unit barrier (cars and commercial vehicles).
Exports keep rising thanks to strong trade with Argentina, Brazil’s top customer. Manufacturers association Anfavea has revised its export forecast to 620,000 units this year (30% up) and US$12.4bn in total revenue, up 49% over 2009.
Nonetheless Anfavea president Cledorvini Belini is concerned about Brazil losing competitiveness abroad.
“The 2010 numbers will be below 2008’s and will be far away from 2005’s, when we exported nearly 900,000 units, our best result ever”, he told just-auto.
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By GlobalDataHe’s also concerned about import sales rising month after month.
“I am not talking of Argentine or Mexican products, countries we hold trade agreements with so there is no import tax. But I am concerned about models from the far east that land here priced to equal or even undercut rivals despite freight, insurance and 35% import tax charges.” he said.
Year to date, 18% of Brazilian registrations have been of vehicles produced abroad. And the imports’ growth rate has been steeper than the overall market. Half of the 200,000 extra units sold from January to the end of August were imports.
