MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina's Jan. car production plunges 54%; exports 60%

Argentina's car production plunged 54.6% in January compared to the same month last year, the Automakers' Chamber (ADEFA) reported yesterday

The number of cars manufactured in the country totalled 18,720, down from 41,228 in January 2008.

Exports in January meanwhile fell 60% from the same month of 2008, (20.476 and 8.190) while sales of cars by manufacturers to dealerships ? which include imported vehicles ? dropped 38.9% (33,699 vehicles). ADEFA said the sales of locally manufactured cars increased 8.5% in January, compared to December, although production is expected to decline in the near future as a result of dropping sales. In 2008, car production in the country set a record, with 597,086 cars coming off the assembly lines. Figures also show the growing Brazil dependency of the Argentine car industry, which absorbed 82% of exports. In recent months, the main car manufacturers in Argentina ? including Volkswagen, General Motors, and Fiat ? have announced staff suspensions and early vacations, prompted by the deceleration in international and domestic demand. In January 2008, car manufacturing had soared 141% over a year ago and similarly with exports which rocketed 107%. "January a year ago the fear was that industry would run out of gas in July, so we changed our production calendar and advanced manufacturing", said Dante Sica an economist for the industry. Nevertheless Adefa admits that even when January "was not positive", numbers were better than expected because of the domestic market. Regarding a forecast for this year car production Adefa sources mentioned 450.000 (last year was almost 600.000).