If a button is enough to show, yesterday after the provision establishing new restrictions on the importation of goods, the first to fall were independent car importersthat he could not transfer a single dollar abroad.

“Today nothing could be paid out “he told Clarin, Monday night, Hugo Belcastroentrepreneur with dealers of various brands, both national and imported, and owner of the Chamber of official automobile importers and distributors (CIDOA).

“Some importers managed to get us shipped, with the promise from us that we have shipped and paid. Now it is difficult to explain that we cannot pay them for a new regulation, we lose credibility with suppliers and some agency contracts could be in jeopardyBelcastro added.

To make it clear: the cars imported by independent distributors, today, they represent between 2% and 3% of total imports vehicular. They are very far from that postcard from the time of Cristina Kirchner with Débora Giorgi as minister, in which the import of luxury cars alone generated a deficit of $ 1,000 million.

In those years the automotive industry was experiencing a great productive moment (it was nearly 830,000 units produced in 2011) but generated at the same time a trade deficit close to $ 10,000 million, including imported vehicles and even auto parts that were brought in from abroad.

The current photo is very different. The projections of the auto entrepreneurs is that of this year’s total deficit of the sector it would be around $ 2,000 million. It is one of the consequences of the commercial policy carried out by the Secretary of Industry, ariel schalefirst with Matias Kulfa of minister and now with Daniele Scioli.

Under this policy, the dollar deficit of the automotive sector is still valid, but it is at a level it has not touched for at least Two decades. Obviously at the cost of having it fewer and fewer cars available and more and more expensive.

“For the second half we have already been told that the import it will get complicated”, They said in one of the most important car manufacturers in the country. Automotive terminals, grouped in the Association of Automobile Manufacturers (ADEFA), today they focus nearly 97% of total imports vehicular.

Not all factories share the same diagnosis. “We hope soauthorize what we ask. In the second semester we will produce more and above all export moreThey said in another car. Both, the pessimist and the optimist, are of European origin.

The market it will be smaller this year. Last year 382,000 zero kilometer units were sold. “If this year we reach 375,000 units, it will be a feat“, She said Riccardo Salomeowner of Association of Automobile Dealers (FACE UP TO).

With little stock prices go up with the lift. The average official list of vehicles has increased 70% in 2021, according to ACARA, against inflation of just over 50%. This year they are increasing an average rate of 5.5% per month (rack up between 30% and 40% from 1 January).

This level of increases, even above inflation, is also generating an effect unthinkable until recently: there are fewer surcharges, those transactions that are agreed under the table to obtain a unit in a reasonable amount of time (in Argentina buying a car within a reasonable time is less than 45 days).

A concrete example: some pick-ups of domestic production, in their basic single-cabin version, are offered with a 5% discount. “For the premium versions there are still surcharges, but for the base version, which accounts for 40% of what is produced, there are discounts on list prices,” said a retailer inside, where the pickups are selling to. zero. The discount is calculated, of course, after an increase of over 100% in 18 months.