The 21% growth in heavy vehicle exports allowed Mexico’s production to rebound 17% during January 2022, adding two consecutive months of positive figures; however, manufacturing and foreign sales are “still below 2019, and do not mark a recovery trend in the sector, which is expected until the middle of this year,” said Miguel Elizalde, president of the National Association of Producers of Buses, Trucks and Tractor Trucks (ANPACT).
The reactivation of the economy in the United States pulled the truck production in Mexico, with 14,726 units, which exceeded the manufacturing of 2021 and 2020, but far from 2019 by 11%, when 16,569 units were assembled.
The problem of semiconductors has not yet been overcome and it will be until the second semester when a recovery can be observed”, said Elizalde.
In a virtual press conference to present the results of heavy vehicles to January 2022, the president of the ANPACT highlighted the increase of 49.6% in the production of trucks and 950% in foreign buses.
He specified that the greatest demand for production comes from U.Sas Mexican shipments to that nation increased 24.4% in January, accounting for 12,752 units, of the total of 13,308 exported in the world.
Elizalde commented that exports are increasing, but there is still a decrease compared to 2019 (pre-pandemic year) of 4.6% during January 2022. For this reason, he trusted that with the stabilization of the supply of semiconductors as of July, the industry can overcome the figures prior to Covid-19.
For his part, Guillermo Rosales, president of the Mexican Association of Automotive Dealers (AMDA), highlighted that truck retail sales increased 19.6% during the first month of 2022, with 2,599 units. Although it is 11.7% below what was reported in 2019.
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