Audi will invest $ 500 million in Brazil

The German automaker Audi, Volkswagen Group, has a hearing scheduled with President Dilma Rousseff in the morning to confirm that it will produce cars in Parana. The investment planned by the company surpasses r $ 500 million, according to an agreement signed in secrecy, with the Government of Paraná.
The meeting of the World President Dilma Audi, Rupert Stadler, is scheduled for 11:0. As a result, at 1:30 pm, the Executive will give a media conference to the press alongside Bernd Martens, Vice President of global automaker, and Jörg Hofmann, who took over earlier this month as President of Audi in Brazil.
Is also planned for today the announcement of accession to the new regime branded automotive, the Government program that grants tax incentives in Exchange for the nationalization of vehicles. Tomorrow, at 10:30, a ceremony will be held at the Palácio Iguaçu, Paraná State Government Headquarters, to officiate the project with the State Governor, Beto Richa (PSDB).
The value found that two models will be produced by the brand in Brazil: the A3 and the Q3 SUV. The plan of the Germans is, as happened between 1999 and 2006, share with the Volkswagen Group factory in São José dos Pinhais, in the great Curitiba. Currently, VW produces Fox models and on-site Golf, still in fourth generation.
A government source said that on the day of 21 August, the direction of Audi signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at investment in the State. According to him, the annual production capacity in the future line will be approximately 26 million automobiles, with start-up scheduled for 2015, probably in the second half.
At the invitation of the press conference sent to the press, the Audi reports only that Stadler's coming to Brazil to speak with Dilma on brand strategy in the country and in Latin America.
In the federal Government, there is the expectation that, in addition to the return of the Audi, Volkswagen confirm local production of the seventh generation of the compact Golf model, drawing on the same platform of the A3. With this project, the German group's investment in the plant in Paraná would come close to R $ 1.1 billion, according to a source from the federal Government that accompanies the negotiations around the enterprise. However, until yesterday, there was no official confirmation about the participation of Thomas Schmall, the Executive who runs the Brazilian subsidiary of Volkswagen, in audience with the President Rousseff in Brasilia, which reduces the possibility of the ad still on Tuesday.
In the wake of investment made by BMW in a factory in the North of Santa Catarina, the Audi is the second automaker of the so-called premium segment to decide by local production after the Government major imports of vehicles. The German also Mercedes-Benz and Land Rover are two other English brands that are very close to announcing investments in Brazil. At the moment, both are studying the location of enterprises.
As the Government, since December of 2011, cobra 30 percentage points of extra tax on industrialized products (IPI) on imports of vehicles, local production became a path practically mandatory for high-scale in the Brazilian market, the fourth largest in the world. Audi's goals include overcoming sales of 30 thousand cars a year in Brazil, starting from 7 thousand units estimated, via import, to 2013.
Without the factory in Brazil, imports the brand free of surcharge would be limited to only 3.9 thousand cars per year. With the project of local production, Audi can-already during the installation of the line-import the equivalent of 25% of his future capacity without collecting the IPI extra.
When production started, tax rebates will be proportionate to the use of local parts. In negotiations with the federal Government, the direction of Audi promised to develop a chain of local suppliers to meet not only the Parana factory, but also to other operations of the group in the world.