Light car assembly has its worst October in a decade

In tune with the global crisis of shortage of electronic components, the Mexican automotive industry again reduced its assembly and shipments to foreign markets during October 2021, which became the 10th worst month of the year for the sector in practically a decade.

Production fell 25.9% to 257,813 units, the lowest level since October 2011, when the assembly was 240,648 vehicles. Meanwhile, exports fell 19.9% ​​to 224,535 cars, the lowest share of foreign shipments since October 2012 (216,576 cars).

Most of the 13 assembly brands that have operations in Mexico have implemented technical stoppages throughout the year due to the global shortage of semiconductors, which are the basis for the production of microchips, today present in a large number of automotive parts. (tachometers, center consoles, sensors, etc.).

The drop in production – which is not exclusive to Mexico – has also been reflected in lower domestic sales, which in October also had its worst level for the same month in 10 years, with the turnover of 76,640 new cars, figure 9.1 % lower than October 2020 and 44.3% lower than October 2016, the last peak of sales.

In October, the brand that had to cut its production the most, by far, was General Motors, whose assembly fell 68.6% to 25,018 units, while KIA’s production fell 38.4% to 14,300 vehicles.

The third brand with the largest contraction was Volkswagen, which reduced its assembly by 37.6% to 25,856 parts. In contradiction, Toyota was the only assembly company with positive figures, as it produced 6.4% more cars, to reach 22,372.

In the export department, a correlation was observed and General Motors was also the brand with the greatest decline, dropping 55.2% to 31,228 cars, while, at the opposite extreme, Toyota exported 3.1% more units to reach 21,564.

So far this year, total automotive assembly in Mexico has grown 1.9% to two million 520,489 units, while exports have risen 6% to two million 239,174 automobiles.

However, analysts expect the year to end in negative figures for both indicators, as the shortage of components has been exacerbated in the last three months and the outlook is not expected to improve in the last quarter of the year.

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