The closing of the short week before Easter was black for the automotive sector: in just two days
three automotive terminals announced staff layoffs, voluntary retirements or temporary closure of activity.
The corollary was on Wednesday night, when the Association of Automotive Dealers (ACARA) reported that sales of zero-kilometer vehicles
collapsed
during March, with just over 25,000 registrations and
a drop of 36.6%
compared to the same month of the year. previous year and 30.2% so far this year.
The three terminals that are tightening their belts are
Renault, General Motors and Toyota,
which resorted to different measures to compensate for the drop in vehicle sales in the domestic market (Renault), the lack of dollars to pay for parts to external suppliers ( General Motors) and also the drop in exports (Toyota).
Renault announced internally that
it will not renew the contracts of 270 of its workers
, who in turn represent 15% of the total at the Santa Isabel factory in Córdoba, where just under 1,900 people worked until this month.
Company sources confirmed the information and indicated that the drop in sales in the local dealership network impacts them almost completely, since 90% of the vehicles that are assembled in Santa Isabel are destined for the domestic market.
"We export only 10% of production, so the drop in internal sales
hits us hard
," said a company executive. In Santa Isabel the
Kangoo
models (the only one that is exported),
Sandero, Stepway and the Alaskan pickup
are produced
. The latter shares a production line with the Nissan Frontier pickup.
Renault is also one of the few local terminals that has
an investment in hand to launch a new model
, which would be a small pickup truck for export. The same manager assured that this investment project is not at risk. "The investment is moving forward and the time is being sought to
make the formal announcement
," he said.
In the case of General Motors, this Wednesday it once again paralyzed the activity of its Rosario factory until April 15, just as it had done during January and February.
According to General Motors sources, once again the slowdown in activity is due to the exchange rate, which affected the activity of all automotive companies in the last two years, with numerous plant stoppages. In the case of General Motors, the company reported in a statement that it is due to "problems with the supply of parts from suppliers affected by payments abroad."
In this way, by the time the new suspension date is met, the plant where the Chevrolet Tracker model is assembled today
will have worked four weeks in just under four months
(previously, it had been on vacation from December 29 to December 31). January and then suspended the activity during February).
In the case of Toyota, the country's main vehicle factory, it opened
a voluntary retirement program for 400 of its 8,500 workers
(4% of the total) to compensate for the drop in activity generated by the lower export of Hilux pick-ups and all-terrain vehicles. SW4 land to
Colombia, Chile and Peru.
The news was spread internally, since the company did not comment. But a month ago, the head of Toyota,
Gustavo Salinas
, had anticipated that in 2024 they would reduce their production by 10% (from 182,000 to a maximum of 165,000 units) as a result of the decline in three of their export markets. "It is not because of the fall in the domestic market, we estimate sales and production in the domestic market similar to what we had last year," the managers told the operators this week.
Sales at dealerships during March of zero-kilometer vehicles totaled
25,294 units
, according to ACARA, which represents a decrease of 36.6% year-on-year. In the accumulated three months, 84,261 units were patented, 30.2% less than in the same period in 2023.
"Clearly we have a new market,
of supply
, in which dealers must
go in search of customers
who have had a deterioration in their purchasing power," said the head of ACARA,
Sebastián Beato.