The government has just applied to new restriction to make cars in the country: it expanded 45 to 75 the number of days for car terminals to access the Single market and free trade (MULC) of the Central Bank to buy the dollars needed to pay the auto parts imports.
The automotive industry depends on imports to function. The models with the greatest integration of local parts reach 55%but there are several that just over 20% But even in cases of greater local integration, in turn these pieces also depend on the importing inputs for its manufacture.
As a mitigation, from Economy they are talking to automakers so that they activate overseas pre-financing lines to get the dollars to the destination countries where the cars manufactured in the country go. Currently 60% of exports are destined Brazilfollowed by Colombia (8.4%), the group of countries of central America (8.4%), kilos (8.3%) and Peru (7.4%).
This decision, confirmed in Clarín by four of the terminals that make up the Automotive Manufacturers Association (ADEFA), is part of the dollar drought by the Central Bank and the need for the Ministry of Economy to “give priority” (the term was coined by Sergio Massa’s team) to whom the dollars are sold immediately at the price official and to whom Orders are postponed for later.
“It’s something that’s starting to be talked about and still we don’t know how it goes. For now the only concrete thing is that for auto parts it has gone from 45 days to 75 days to be able to pay them. If we can borrow from a bank, maybe we can afford the payment rate we had up until now in the auto parts case, which was 45 days and with which there was no discussion with the suppliers”, said the director of one of these companies.
In the Government he had already extended the authorizations for access to the Central Bank’s dollars at the official price to be paid import of finished vehicles.
Both in April and now in May the Ministry of Commerce issued the authorizations to the Import System (SIRA) to pay for the importation of motor vehicles in the first days of December.
The authorizations released at the end of April established a delay of 210 days. And those that will be released at the end of May have a duration of 195 days. In this way who should supply the automakers with the import dollars of these last two months will be the next government takes office on December 10
Those deadlines are for vehicles imported. The case of auto parts is different, since its potential impact is not only on the commercial offer, but also on factory activity.
Among the automotive terminals and their auto parts suppliers, it is estimated that there are quite a few 100,000 direct operatorsnot counting the companies that provide them with inputs, logistics and other services.
So far, the lack of auto parts hasn’t had any impact up to the limit of completely paralyze activities in the sector, even if in 2022 there were isolated cases.
In the middle of that year the pick-up assembly line stopped for two days. Nissan and Renault, in Córdoba. After that episode there was a trade union conflict between the three tire factories, which led to a production stoppage of almost a week Ford and Toyota.
In October the factory Fiatin Córdoba, it had to interrupt its activity for two shifts, again due to problems importing inputs.
In the following week there were the last stops due to lack of supplies: it stopped again Fiat (in two days) and the pickup line of Renault and Nissanfor four days
Source: Clarin
