The Transport sector plunged into a crisis from which it will take time to come out

Transport companies have been hard hit by the effects of the economic policies of Q4 and the global economic crisis that generated the Covid-19 pandemic.

In Mexico, according to preliminary figures from the 2020 Annual Transportation Survey (EAT), the revenues of most of these companies fell in 2019 and again in 2020.

During the first year of the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the problems for these companies began after in 2018 they had, in almost all the subsectors that make up the Transportation sector, never before seen income.

These are the numbers for the last year of Enrique Peña Nieto’s government: national airlines: 140,622 million pesos; railways: 65,418 million; offshore shipping excluding oil and natural gas: 2,619 million; cabotage maritime transport excluding oil and natural gas: 5,891 million; cargo trucking: 259,448 million; foreign collective transport of fixed route passengers: 83,179 million, and; urban and suburban collective passenger transport in fixed route buses: 41,355 million.

In 2019, the revenues of five of the seven subsectors fell: domestic airlines: -7.5%; offshore maritime transport excluding oil and natural gas: -2.4%; cargo trucking: -14%; foreign collective transport of fixed route passengers: -19.7%, and; urban and suburban collective passenger transport in fixed route buses: -18.7 percent.

The two subsectors that had the most income were railways (+ 0.5%) and coastal shipping, excluding oil and natural gas (+ 5.6%).

In 2020, the revenues of five of the seven subsectors fell dramatically compared to 2019: national airlines: -49.5%; offshore shipping excluding oil and natural gas: -27%; maritime cabotage transport excluding oil and natural gas: -15.8%; foreign collective transport of fixed route passengers: -36.8%, and; urban and suburban collective passenger transport in fixed route buses: -22.5 percent.

The two subsectors that registered increases were railways (+ 2.9%) and freight transport (+ 5.8%).

In 2018, the total income of the seven subsectors was 598,532 million pesos. In 2019 they fell 11.7% compared to the previous year to settle at 528,365 million. In 2020 they fell again, compared to the previous year, 15.8%, to remain at 444,894 million.

Between the last year of EPN and the second of AMLO, the fall in the sector’s income was 25.7 percent.

During the year that is about to end, the transport companies of our country face various problems: the rise in the prices of equipment and spare parts due to the scarcity of the same caused by disruptions in the global supply chains, the rise in prices of fuels, the rise in the dollar and a lower demand for their services, among other things.

Given the forecasts of lower economic growth than expected for this year and a weak recovery in the incoming, the Transport sector, like most other sectors, will take a few years to recover its pre-pandemic income levels.

We are not doing well, as some say out there …

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Eduardo Ruiz-Healy

Journalist and producer

Guest column

Opinioner, columnist, lecturer, media trainer, 35 years of experience in the media, micro-entrepreneur.



Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx

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