Profit remittances of automakers come back up and spend $ 3 billion

Despite the drop in sales, the auto industry has not failed to remit amounts of $ 1 billion of profit abroad last year. In total, $ 3.29 billion was sent back to Headquarters by companies in the sector, including auto parts, installed in the country (see chart opposite). The amount was 34.7% above the $ 2.44 billion in 2012 and represents the biggest shipment between all branches of the economy monitored by the Central Bank, surpassing again the drinks industry, which sent $ 2.84 billion in 2013.
But beyond remittances, investments in overseas business were another channel of exit of capital obtained by these companies in Brazil. In 2013, $ 1.06 billion left the country as direct investments in subsidiaries of other markets, the highest figure in three years, according to the survey of the Central Bank. The Bank, however, does not detail the fate of this capital, as well as companies involved in the transactions.
If profit remittances are the largest among all economic activities, investments in automotive companies abroad lose only to those made by manufacturers of chemical products (US $ 1.1 billion) and petroleum ($ 1.25 billion) between the sectors of manufacture or mineral extraction.
As there are few automakers or multinational auto parts to disclose balance sheets in Brazil, the data of the Central Bank are the main thermometer as these companies are earning here. Together, profit remittances and investments abroad increased from $ 4.3 billion last year. Already in the opposite direction, the flow of foreign investment in the sector companies in Brazil-$ 1.87 billion-have not reached half that.
Leticia Costa, consultant to Saddi, the numbers prove the high profitability of automakers in Brazil, where it is the fourth-largest vehicle market in the world. "They invest here by the size of the market and also why is a profitable business," he says.
In the past nine years, consignments of automotive companies exceeded the figure of $ 28 billion, irrigating the coffers of the arrays in periods of crisis in the United States and Europe.
In turn, since 2007, the overseas investments made from Brazil come close to $ 4 billion. This indicates that the Brazilian subsidiaries of major global automobile groups are assuming more active participation in the financing of business abroad, mainly in South America.
For analysts, the situation reflects a new policy adopted by automakers who have been through crises in recent years and now prefer to preserve the box, reducing the financial support to its subsidiaries. Thus, the funding of projects becomes increasingly borne by the subsidiaries. Like Brazil, generally, is the headquarters of multinational businesses in South America, the country becomes, then, large platform contributions received by automakers or auto parts manufacturers in the region. Departing from Brazilian companies, for example, 28% of foreign investment received by the Argentine auto industry.
After registering fall in 2012, both consignments as investments abroad turned up in a year in which sales of vehicles had the first drop in a decade. In 2013, the plates issued-between cars, trucks and buses fell 0.9% to-3.77 million units.
Nevertheless, nine straight years of evolution of demand-in sometimes obtained with tax exemption and tax waiver from the Government more than doubled the size of the market. During this period, the automakers ' profit margins were squeezed by fierce competition, along with rising costs of raw materials and labor. Still, they were able to take advantage of this expansion of consumption with cars sold at prices above the international average, which still allows them to toast the arrays with good returns obtained in Brazil.