Vehicle production in Brazil has fallen 17% in Q3

SAO PAULO (Reuters)-the production of vehicles in Brazil in the third quarter fell 16.8 percent over the same period in 2013, impacted by weakness in the internal market and exports and that made September the sixth consecutive month of job losses in the sector.
Despite the drop in production, inventories of new vehicles waiting for buyer closed on September 404.5 thousand units, highest level of the year, said the association representing the industry, Anfavea, on Monday.
The production for the third quarter totaled 818.1 million vehicles, up 5.6 percent over the second quarter. Sales were already of 863.6 thousand vehicles, growing 1.6 percent over the second quarter of this year, but falling 12 percent compared to the previous year.
Luiz Moan, President of Anfavea, said the industry has recovered from the weak results of the first half and that the average number of vehicles sold so far in the second half is 3.9 percent higher than in the first half of year alright.
"In the second half we are growing on the first," said Moan, with journalists that the entity expected that sales in September were "a little better".
In September only, the production was of 300.8 million vehicles, up 13.7 percent over August and fall of 6.7 percent over a year earlier. Sales were of 296.3 thousand units, up 8.7 percent on a monthly comparison, but backing down 4.4 percent on annual relationship.
"It's to be expected that sales remain under pressure given the challenging economic environment," said analysts of the Buckingham Research Group, in a report. "The annual drop in sales of light vehicles was much better than expected, given the challenging economy," they added.
Despite the earnings of the year of production and sales are still far from the estimates of the Anfavea worsened already for the year, the entity retained its estimates on Monday.
The expectation for production in 2014 is to drop 10 percent, compared with a cumulative performance until September indentation of 16.8 percent. The licensing is estimated to fall to 5.4 percent, compared with a sales volume until last month 9.1 percent less than a year before.
Asked about the assessment of Anfavea for 2015, Moan said "certainly our idea is that this curve of improvement down in 2015, which is sure to be better than 2014, preferably with smaller stocks".
The automobile manufacturer industry of Brazil ended last month with 6.6 per cent fall in the level of employment over a year earlier, to 147,718 jobs-worst result since May of 2012.
Moan said that the sector has sought to expand exports and has already dispatched a first batch of vehicles to Africa. External sales of vehicles assembled in the country accumulated fall of 38.5 percent in the year to September. Considering only last month, exports plummeted 41.2 percent, to 26.7 thousand units.
The President of Anfavea said that the electoral scenario should follow generating uncertainty about the decision of buying consumers and fleet owners in the next few weeks and that Argentina reimposed restrictions on importation of vehicles in the face of lack of foreign currency.
On the measures taken by the Central Bank at the end of August to credit expansion, Moan said that they helped raise sales of new vehicles financed at 11 percent in September.
"The Brazil needs to turn economy stimulus. If you don't stimulate domestic consumption, we're in trouble, "he said.
By category, the production of cars and light commercial in September fell 5.3 percent over a year earlier, to 286.28 thousand units. Already the volume produced trucks totaled 11.78 billion, down 30.3 percent compared to the previous year. On buses, annual downturn of 8.9 percent, 2.78 million units.
(By Alberto Alerigi)