Sales of imported retreat 22.6% in may

Sales of imported cars on the brands without factory in Brazil, returned to have fall last month. This time, the retreat was 22.6% as compared to the same period in 2012. In comparison with April, there were 13.6% fall in plates issued, according to Abeiva, balance sheet entity that gathers the importing companies. In total, were sold 9.6 million imported cars in may, which brings the year-to-date volume to 44.9 thousand units, a fall of 24.9%.
In the wake of poor performance, the Abeiva reduced to about 130 thousand cars sales forecast in 2013, which means only repeat the volume of 2012. The previous forecast was for a volume close to 150 thousand units this year, taking into account that the marks were given quotas to import cars without extra charge of 30 percentage points in the tax on industrialized products (IPI), applied since December of 2011.
In one year, the participation of brands without factory in Brazil, affected by this restriction, fell from 4.6% to 3.2% of total cars sold in the country. Despite this, Marcel Viscount, Vice President of Abeiva evaluated yesterday that the sector has already passed by the more acute phase of the crisis and the trend for the second half, is recovery. "The worst is over," said the Executive.
As was already happening in the months before, many of the premium segment brands, such as Audi, BMW and Land Rover, had positive performance in may, however, insufficient to compensate for the decline of larger scale marks. Kia Motors, which has the largest volume among the associated Abeiva had, compared to the previous year, 37.5% drop in sales, with a total of 2.6 thousand cars last month.