MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Record car production in Brazil

Brazil's automobile industry set new monthly and quarterly production records in March, with exports playing a leading role the vehicle manufacturers association announced this week.

March production was 218,573 vehicles, 14.1% higher than in the same month last year and 17.5% over February.

In the first quarter, production totalled 565,385 vehicles, 12.5% higher than during the same period in 2004, announced in Sao Paulo Rogelio Golfarb president of the automotive manufacturers association.

"Quarter figures showed a consistent growth pace, supported by exports" said Mr. Golfarb who emphasized that the increase in domestic vehicle sales was "rather limited".

Domestic market sales, 354,464 units -including locally made and imported vehicles ? represented a 4.2% increase over the same quarter last year.

Vehicle exports during the quarter were valued at 2,298 billion US dollars which is a 36.3% jump over the 2004 January-March period.

But in spite of the positive figures manufacturers feel that the sector's prospects are not "precisely encouraging", given the strong appreciation of the Real against the US dollar which is having an impact in export costs.