Brazil is already the 6th largest car maker of the world
Folha de S. Paulo - 03/01/2008
With the exceptional results of the automobile market statistics data in 2007, Brazil surpassed Spain and France and became the sixth largest car maker of the world. 2.97 million vehicles were produced in the country last year, 14% more than in 2006. Such growth placed Brazil behind Japan, the United States, China, Germany and South Korea. "The tendency is that this ranking only presents emerging countries among the largest producers", affirms Stefano Bridelli, director of the Bain & Company consulting. "If we consider only the economic criteria, the makers would have already closed at least half of their plants in Europe." The car makers in France had a particularly bad year. According to the CCFA (Comité des Constructeurs Français d'Automobiles), the French production decreased 7.8% in 2007, producing 2.57 million cars. With these results, the country, that occupied the sixth position among the largest makers, went down to the ninth place in the ranking. It was surpassed not only by Brazil but also by Spain and Canada. In Spain, the Anfac (Asociacion Española de Fabricantes de Automoviles y Camiones) informed that the makers produced 2.88 million units in 2007, 4% above the 2006's data. However the good performance of the Brazilian market allowed Brazil to surpass the other countries. In their forecasts, both European makers associations remarked they expect a year of even lesser growth for 2008. The expectation in Brazil is also for one year of lesser growth. Nonetheless, it may be much greater than the growth of mature countries, with an increase in sales of nearly 10%, according to the Anfavea (National Association of Vehicles' Manufacturers). According to the entity, 2007 was the best year in the history of the car industry in the country. Besides the record production, 2.4 million new cars were licensed, which represents an increase of 27.8% compared to 2006. The main reasons were the reduction in the interest rates and the increase of access to credit. Pushed up by these results, the makers installed in the country have already announced investments of more than R$ 8 billion (US$ 4.5 billion) up to 2010.