Car production in Mexico rose in March 2022: Inegi

Automobile production in Mexico increased by 0.81% per year during March, a month still affected by the shortage of inputs, the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi) reported on Wednesday.

The number of cars manufactured in Mexico in the third month of the year was 305,976 units, just about 2,500 units more than in the same month last year, when 303,515 units were produced.

Thus, in the first quarter of the year the production of light vehicles rose by 3.40% year-on-year, to 849,045 units.

Along the same lines, Mexican vehicle exports grew by 2.49% annually in the same month.

In March, some 262,494 light vehicles were sold abroad, some 6,000 more than in the same month in 2021, when 256,119 units were exported, Inegi added in its report.

However, in the first quarter of the year vehicle exports fell by 1.82% year-on-year, to 680,992 vehicles.

While in the third month of the year, domestic sales fell by 1.16% compared to the same month a year ago, to 95,199 units.

In the first three months of 2022, the drop in sales of light vehicles in the domestic market is 2.86%, to 253,839 units.

The automotive industry accounts for 3.8% of the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 20.5% of manufacturing GDP, more than any other sector, according to the Mexican Association of the Automotive Industry (AMIA).

The sector was completely paralyzed during the health emergency decreed by the Government of Mexico in April and May 2020, when GDP contracted by 8.2%.

After a substantial 16.51% drop in vehicle manufacturing in December 2021, automobile production at Mexican plants fell by 2% per year last year due to the shortage of semiconductor chips.

As for the sale of new cars, Inegi reported on February 2 that during January 2022 there was a decrease of 3.8% according to the Advance of Results of the Administrative Register of the Automotive Industry of Light Vehicles (RAIAVL), based on the information from 23 companies affiliated to the Association Mexican Automotive Industry, AC (AMIA), Giant Motors Latin America and Autos Orientales Picacho.

After two consecutive months on the rise, 78,585 units were sold in the first month of the year, representing the lowest figure recorded in the same period since 2012, when 75,297 new light cars were sold in Mexico, the Institute explained.

But when compared with the sale of new light vehicles in December 2021, the drop was 19.3%, when 97,365 units were sold.

The decline is mainly due to the global shortage of components, the deterioration of consumer purchasing power, as well as the increase in car prices.

With information from EFE

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