Replacement keeps strong in 2009
Valor Econômico 03/31/2009
Heated up since the beginning of the year, the replacement market goes on giving signs of growth in the country. Justified mainly by the increase of the circulating fleet (intensified since 2005) and by the retraction of the sales of new cars between October and January, the greater demand starts being felt now by the producers of car-parts. In that sense, a survey made by the Sindipeças (Brazilian Association of Auto Parts Manufacturers) points to the recovery of the sector this month.
Although it varies according to the market niche of each manufacturer, the perception of representatives of the industry is that the performance in this month of March will be near the result of March of last year. Antonio Carlos Bento, director of the Sindipeças, explains the auto parts distributors work, traditionally, with 70 days of stock, but with the worsening of the international financial crisis they reduced their purchases. "The increase in the sales in the beginning of the year was felt more by the distributors than by the manufacturers, but they have now started to replace their stocks", he said. According to the executive, data of the Sindipeças shows that from December to January the increase in the sales to distributors reached 31% are interpreted as the beginning of the reaction, although the comparison basis was one of the weakest months of the last two years. In February, the ascending curve continued, with a gain of 4.5% compared to January. In comparison with January of 2008, the fall of the replacement market was smaller than the direct sales to the makers. While the makers reduced their volume of orders by 32%, replacement fell 19%, still affected by the high stocks of the distributors.