Argentina’s November car output up on higher exports

Paragraph entered by Atlantic migration, in order for SteelFirst articles to display correctly on Metal Bulletin.

Car production came to 77,968 units, against 75,564 vehicles a year ago, according to figures from local car manufacturing association Adefa.

Last month’s exports totalled 44,724 cars, up by 9.3% compared with November 2011.

This growth was mainly led by a rebound in Brazilian demand, as the country accounts for 81.7% of Argentinian exports, Adefa said.

Sales to the domestic market, however, declined by 7.5% year-on-year in November, to 70,388 vehicles.

Between January and November, Argentinian carmakers produced 703,472 cars, down by 9.4% year-on-year.

Adefa expects local car output to amount to 780,000 units in 2012, down from the high record level registered last year at 828,771 cars.

Steel components are estimated to correspond to around 55.7% of a vehicle’s weight and to represent nearly 7.9% of its sales value.