Motorcycle industry must get the sixth year of consecutive downturn

São Paulo-despite the heating demand, signals the motorcycle industry must get the sixth year of consecutive drop of production and sales in the domestic economy still weak and the continuous restriction of the credit.
The Brazilian Association of manufacturers of motorcycles, Mopeds, Scooters, and Bicycles (Abraciclo) designed, in January, retail sales of 890,000 units to 2017, which would represent a fall of just 1% on the previous year. However, now the entity provides a retraction of 3.4% for the domestic market.
"The demand shows signs of heating up, but the numbers didn''t come as expected," says the President of Abraciclo, Fermanian Landmarks. According to him, by financing sales are expanding, however, the negotiations in sight and by Consortium come falling down. "The selectivity of banks has decreased slowly, but still high," he adds.
He claims that the average credit approval in the industry continues in 20% to 30%. "Out of ten chips, only two or three are adopted. But this is a level that we have seen in recent years ". The President of Abraciclo adds that, today, the banks of automakers account for about 40% of industry financings.
Despite this scenario, the leader is shown optimistic. "Unemployment shows signs of slowing and our market is directly linked to the performance of this indicator," explains Fermanian.
However, the slight improvement in confidence and the increase in demand for motorcycles will not be enough to reverse the fall in retail. "We expected a daily average of best June sales here, but this result did not come," reports the leader. "Obviously, the numbers are better than a year ago, but below what projetávamos", complements the leader.
Production
The 2017 production projection was also revised to an increase of 2.5% to a drop of 0.3%, impacted partly by the replacement in assembly lines for 2018 models. Fermanian claims that manufacturers had fear of accumulating stocks of 2017 models-especially with the proximity of the two-wheeled Lounge in November-and there was an attempt to speed up production of the new release, which did not occur.
"Automakers did not have time to meet the increasing demand for updated bikes and it knocked our projections," Fermanian. "But if we had a better market, surely we''d have at least best numbers," says.
On the other hand, the leader claims that the automakers have reported an increase of requests, which should begin to reflect more robust numbers in the first quarter of next year. "We believe that the sector will present better results in 2018", ponders Fermanian.
In this sense, he believes that automakers may need to hire. "As the brands made some kind of reduction in his paintings, it is possible that the level of employment to increase on-demand heating."
Another factor that can contribute to the improvement of the production is exported, which continues on expansion path. This year, shipments should grow up 35.5% about 2016, despite the weak base. "This result is due to the improved demand argentina, our biggest market."