As the prospects for the Brazilian
automotive industry show little improvement, the nation’s automakers association, Anfavea, downgraded once again its forecast for the sales of cars in 2015.
According to the trade group,
Brazil’s car sales should decline between 23 and 24 percent in the current year, as opposed to a previous decline of 20.6 percent.
“I confess I thought we’ve reached the rock bottom in April, but I found out that there was a basement,” Luiz Moan, president at Anfavea said, while attending an industry event in the city of Sao Paulo. According to the executive, an uptick in the sales of cars should only be expected in the fourth quarter of 2016, when a “slow, but sustainable growth” should take place.
Despite recognizing
Brazil’s
automotive industry faces a challenging time, Moan said the country already experienced other, even worse crises. In the 1990s, for example, auto sales declined as low as 40 percent, the executive noted.
Commenting the rumored price hikes that local steelmakers, including Usiminas, should pass to all its clients, Moan said it didn’t receive any notice from any steelmaker. He added that any price hike at this moment is seen as “worrying.”