The automotive industry rose in 2022: the production and export of vehicles grew.

Wholesale sales also improved. From the sector they warn that the outlook is “challenging”, due to international logistics problems and the lack of semiconductors.

The scenario is far from ideal for automakers, but having left behind the hardest stage of the pandemic gave a boost to activity that was noticeable throughout last year. According to data published by the Association of Automotive Factories (Adefa), in 2022, 536,893 cars were produced in Argentina, which meant an increase of 23.5% compared to the 434,753 units manufactured in 2021.

The improvement was practically a constant throughout the year. Only in January and December were negative results recorded. In fact, the poor performance of the industry in December can only be explained by the fact that there were only 15 business days of activity, due to the stoppage of the plants for vacations.

Another piece of good news is that the improvement in the production rate was transferred to all types of vehicles. The data published by Adefa indicate that automobile manufacturing grew 39.9% throughout 2022, reaching 257,505 units produced.

Meanwhile, utilities, where pick-ups are included, had a rise of 11.5%, going from 250,647 to 279,388 vehicles manufactured.

Throughout 2022, 322,286 vehicles were exported from Argentina, which resulted in an increase of 24.3% in relation to the 259,287 cars that were shipped abroad in 2021.

According to the information provided by Adefa, of the total number of vehicles exported, 138,671 were cars and 182,615 were utility vehicles. Both categories grew, 51.9% and 9.1% respectively.

The final results for the year indicate that the undisputed market for Argentine factories continues to be Brazil. The neighboring country buys 62.8% of the cars that are sent abroad.

The second most important destination is Central America. The countries of that region, jointly, have a participation of 10.1% in the sales of Argentine vehicles abroad. They are followed a little further down by Colombia (6.3%) and Chile (6.2%).

It is important to note that during 2022 only sales to Oceania fell. The rest of the markets bought more vehicles than they had in 2021.

That last year international trade was still hit hard by the effects of the pandemic, so the improvement registered, both in production and in marketing, was to be expected.

In both 2021 and 2022, dealerships made it clear that they could have sold a lot more if they had more vehicles in stock. So it’s no surprise that the vehicles have sold like “hot cakes” over the past year.

According to Adefa statistics, last year the factories sent 376,257 vehicles to dealerships throughout the country, some 41,868 more than in 2021 (12.5% improvement). Once again, the rise occurred in both cars (+13.2%) and utility vehicles (+11.1%).

The representative of the car factories stated that it is important to maintain a work agenda together with the Government focused on the implementation of the investment promotion law and local auto parts development.