Motorcycle production has dropped 25% in quarter

The Brazilian production of motorcycles fell 26.9% in comparison with the same month last year, to 131.2 million units, according to Abraciclo, an organization that represents the manufacturers of the segment. After the production also has been less than in January and February, the cumulative result of the quarter is 25.1% drop in the volume of motorcycles produced in the country, to 381.7 thousand units.
Wholesale motorcycle sales also fell, going from 468.5 thousand units in the first three months of last year to 366.1 million units until March of this year, down 21.9%. However, in retail, the average daily sales rose from 5.6 thousand units in February to 6.2 thousand in the third month of the year. Despite the increase, the volume is still lower than the average of 7.5 thousand units a day in March 2012.
The Honda brands, Dafra and BMW had sales falls in line with the market, while the number of bikes sold by Yamaha declined 35.9% and the volume of Kasisnki fell 76.5% in the quarter.
Abraciclo assigns the worsening of quarterly performance to the restrictions to the financing to consumers. "The fact that credit be restricted still more detrimental," said Marcos Fermanian, President of the Association in press conference. According to him, out of ten applications for credit for the purchase of motorcycles, only two are approved.
In recent years, the bad debt in financing for vehicles led financial institutions to be more selective in their concessions. The rate of defaults in this kind of credit was 2.5% in December 2010 and 5.3% in the last month of last year, said Jose Eduardo Gonçalves, Executive Director of Abraciclo. "Even if the default is falling in relation to the peak of 6.1% in May last year, is still very far from the level of two years ago," he said.
For sales to rise this year, says the Abraciclo credit increase. Fermanian says that the Association has been meeting with the Government and with banks to try to increase the presence of public institutions in financing for the purchase of motorcycles.
The expectation is that the sector has gradual recovery from the second half of the year and end the year with 1.7 million motorcycles produced, 3.7% more than last year, and 1.6 million units sold, up 2.4%.
The Association also reported yesterday in the press event, bike sales in wholesale fell 15% in the first quarter of this year over the same period in 2012, to 102.5 million units.