Overview of the current situation of the automotive industry in Brazil

Drop in sales does not affect optimism of Brazilian automakers Industry.

Numbers presented to the press this month regarding 2016 and 2017 remain weak, but the industry believes the market would recover until the end of this year.
At the end of 2016 there was a fall of 6.8% regarding the sale of light vehicles, even though 250 thousand of cars were sold. The ANEF (National Association of Financial Companies of Assemblers) forecasts a volume of resources exceeding 166 billion reais for 2017, with a growth of 5.5% of the market. Investments of the Swedish Volvo is one of the few assemblers installed in Brazil, that make profit in their sales from their manufacturing plant of buses and trucks. Volvo will invest one (1) billion reais in Latin America, being 90% in Brazil. The CEO of Volvo, Wilson Lirmann believes that the signals the market are presenting are positive and consistent for this type of investment. Last year Volvo (the leader in the segment) sold 30,000 units in 2016. The company believes that there are still uncertainties in Brazil regarding the stabilization of the economy, but at worst it will have a 10% increase in production and sales. The company sells its trucks and buses to several countries in Latin America, using Brazil as a platform. In case of auto-parts still a potential for Dutch companies of the segment

Source: Journal of Commerce, March 2017 and local knowledge NBSO