Más Información
According to the Mexican Automotive Industry Association ( AMIA ), the automotive industry in Mexico hit a record high in both production and exports in 2017, despite the uncertainty generated by the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement ( NAFTA ) with top trading partners the United States and Canada .
The automotive production closed the year with a 9% increase compared to 2016, manufacturing 3,773,569 vehicles and exporting 3,102,604 vehicles, a 12.1% export increase compared to the previous year.
AMIA emphasized that last December the export volume, which stood at 252,723 units, exceeded the production of 246,248 vehicles, since some inventories were exported as well, an unusual situation in the industry.
Exports to the United States grew 9.4% in 2017, while exports to Canada increased 8.5%. It should be noted that exports to Europe increased 45.2% driven by exports to Germany , while shipments to Asia rose 38.1%.
“Despite the uncertainty surrounding NAFTA and rumors Mexico wouldn’t be able to continue exporting to the United States, it’s important to note that not only did we hit a record in exports but we also had record export numbers to the United States with nearly 10 percent growth,” AMIA President Eduardo Solis said.
The assembly plants with the highest volume of production in 2017 were Nissan , 829,262 units; General Motors , 805,758 units, and Fiat Chrysler , 638,653 units.
The most exported vehicles were Sentra , 283,494 units; Versa , 205,449 units, and Jetta , 205,149 vehicles.
AMIA disclosed that the production forecast for 2018 is 4 million units while the export forecast is expected to be 3.2 million units.
Guillermo Rosales
, Deputy Director General of the Mexican Association of Automobile Distributors ( AMDA ) stressed that inflation may have affected new car purchases since car sales in Mexico contracted 4.6% in 2017 from 2016.
sg
