Brazilian Sales and Production of Automobiles Hit New Record

Those of you paying attention to my warnings on possible Brazilian interest rate hikes, please take note that vehicle sales in the Brazilian market had the best monthly average in history, with a positive variation of 60.1% compared to February and 30.3% compared to March 2009.

Inflation concerns are also growing due the recent hike in prices of iron ore, which will directly affect the autombile industry prices, a major component of inflation.

353.7 thousand units were sold in March. The previous record was 308.7 thousand units sold in September 2009, according to data published by the National Association of Vehicle Manufacturers (Anfavea).

The production of vehicles in the Brazilian market also hit a record high in March, totaling 331 thousand units, +32.5% compared to February and +20.3% from a year earlier.

For Q1 2010, sales totaled 788 thousand units, a growth of 17.9% on cars marketed in the same period of 2009. The production of 826.7 thousand units in the first three months of this year showed an increase of 24.4% over the period from January to March last year.

Flex-Fuel vehicles

Flex-fuel vehicles to move over 296 thousand units. Sales of cars and light commercial vehicles flex-fuel model (flex) totaled 296,363 units in March, with a share of 87.9% of total category sales.

Farm machinery sales rose 23.9% in March. For Q1, sales of agricultural machinery rose 51.9% compared to the same period last year. The production of agricultural machinery rose 22.3% in March compared to February to 7903 units and grew 40.6% over March 2009. I


Employment

The automobile industry showed a monthly increase of 0.9% in the number of employees, and +4.6% compared to March 2009.

Exports

Exports grew 18.8% in March. Exports of the automotive sector totaled $1billion in March this year, an increase of 18.8% over the month of February and growth of 62.9% compared to March 2009.