Brazil increases its relevance to Volkswagen group
Valor Econômico 04/23/2009
The party the Government of President Juscelino Kubitschek threw to celebrate the arrival of Volkswagen in 1953, gave the impression, at that time, that Brazil had a lot to profit from that investment. Today, on the other hand, the Brazilian operation is what sustains a great part of the structure of this German multinational company all over the world. The Brazilian participation in the world sales of the company increases in a sustainable way. It went from 14% in 2007 to 16% in 2008. It is the second largest operation outside Germany, behind the Chinese plants.
In the last quarter, Brazil even helped in the profit composition of the company. The operating profit of Volks decreased 76%, to 312 million Euros in the first three months of the year. But the result could have been even worse wasn't for the 600 million Euro gain generated by the sale of the Brazilian operation of trucks and buses to the also German truck producer MAN, in the beginning of the year. The maker informed the world income fell 11.2% in the first three months of the year in compared to the same period of 2008, reaching 24 billion Euros. In the period, sales showed a retraction of 10.7%, to 1.4 million units. In Brazil, however, also in the first quarter, its sales registered an increase of 8.5%. The result exceeded the result of the very market, which increased 4%. In March, the company started calling the workers of its largest plant, in São Bernardo do Campo (SP), to work extra hours on Saturdays. Brazil's prominence in the situation of this multinational company takes place regardless the world crisis. The Volkswagen group ended 2008 with a sales increase of 0.6% all over the world and 6% in Brazil. According to the report released by Volks to investors yesterday, in Europe, the markets that have cooperated for the sales of company the most are China, Germany and Brazil, which represented 44% of the total sales last year. In Brazil, the company enjoys the good results of the renewal of the line of basic cars of last year.