The Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, announced this Thursday that in 2023 the Government will not charge the right to incremental automobile exports, from sales that exceed 322,000 units sold abroad during the past year. According to automotive industry sources, the measure could lead to the export of 70,000 additional vehicles and an extra foreign exchange income of US$1.7 billion.
“Any incremental export will not pay export duties. It is a way of rewarding investment, Argentine work, and effort,” Massa said today during a meeting with representatives of automotive companies, auto parts, dealers, and union leaders.
The minister also highlighted that the auto parts and automobile production sector generated “almost 50,000 more jobs than in 2021” to reach 600,000 jobs throughout the industry, a number that he expects “to continue to grow in 2023.”
“We finished a wonderful year -2022- but the one that begins must be much better,” said the head of the Palacio de Hacienda.
Car exports on the rise
Massa highlighted that 536,000 units were manufactured last year, including cars and utility vehicles, “which marked an improvement of 23.5% compared to 2021, and the highest production in the last eight years” and this increase occurred “despite of those who said there were problems, that tires were missing”.
But, in addition, “exports totaled 322,286 vehicles, with an increase of 24.3%”, which means Argentine work abroad.
The Government seeks to encourage the export of vehicles and the local production of auto parts.
“We envision for 2023 a scenario of minimum production of 620,000 vehicles“, said Massa, compared to the 536,000 cars in 2022, leading a presentation with the Secretary of Industry and Productive Development, José Ignacio de Mendiguren, and authorities from the Association of Automotive Factories (Adefa) and unions in the sector.
Massa estimated that “370,000 of those cars produced in Argentina will go abroad” and in this framework “all the incremental exports (compared to 2022) will not pay export duties, because we want to reward investment, work and effort” of the sector as a whole.
Meanwhile, from ADEFA (Association of Automotive Factories), the directors of the terminals announced that, if current conditions continue, an increase of more than 10% could be registered in both production and exports.
“Specifically, in the case of exports, the positive impact of the continuity of the decree that exempts incremental shipments from payment of duties by 2023 was highlighted. Due to this measure, it is estimated that they will be able to produce and export approximately 70,000 additional units, what will represent an additional foreign exchange income of US$1.7 billion“.
In search of cars with more national parts
The minister stressed that “we already have a vehicle that is almost 50% domestically produced and we seek to get that percentage to other” automobiles.
He stressed that the automotive section “It is an example that the challenge of growing and our responsibility as a Government is promote to increase“.
Car exports: the Government aims to achieve an extra income of US$1.7 billion.
In the twelve months of last year, 322,286 vehicles were exported, with an increase of 24.3% compared to the same period in 2021, when 259,287 units were sold abroad.
Regarding the destinations of local production, throughout the 12 months of 2022 some 202,406 units (62.8% of total shipments) were destined for the Brazilian market, which confirms the importance of the neighboring country, although last year it was well below the historical 85% it came to represent.
Next in importance are the markets of Central America, with 32,462 vehicles (10.1%); Colombia, with 20,180 (6.3%); Chile, with 20,140 (6.2%); Peru, with 17,617 (5.5%); and Mexico, with 7,889 (2.4%).
