Brazil and China help Volkswagen to offset recession in the Europe
Valor Econômico - 07/22/2008
China and Brazil, in that order, have had the greatest growth volumes in sales of Volkswagen in the world, thus helping to make up a little for the fall of sales it and other European makers go through in their continent of origin. According to the report the German company released to investors yesterday, the volume of vehicles sold in the entire planet in the first six months of the year resulted in a growth of 5.8%, in a total of 3.27 million units. In China, 531.6 thousand cars were sold, or a growth of 23.2% compared to last year's same period The sales in Brazil, which amounted to 316 thousand units, increased 21.8% in the same period. With the cooled down market, the performance in the Western Europe registered a 3.6% fall. "Clearly, there are dark clouds over the automotive world", said Detlef Wittig, Sales and Marketing Vice-President of the Volkswagen group. However, the global result exceeded the average of the market and increased the international participation of the group, the executive said. Brazil was the largest of all Volkswagen's operations outside Germany. It lost grounds to China. But the structure the company has in the country tends to make the Brazilian branch increasingly independent for product development. Volkswagen has been in Brazil for 55 years. It was the first country to receive a plant of the company outside Germany. The operation currently involves 21 thousand employees in five plants. During that time, the company has already produced 17 million vehicles. In the second place in the domestic market, the maker has just taken step to advance more, with the total renewal of the "Gol", Brazil's top selling car and Volkswagen's fifth in sales in the world. The sales crisis in Europe will not impair the exportations of the Brazilian branch, since the greatest volumes are sent to markets in Latin America, besides Africa and the Middle East. During the launching of the new Gol, the president of the Volkswagen in Brazil Thomas Schmall said the company may soon decide on new hefty investments to increase its industrial capacity in Brazil.