After more than a year with figures for car sales down by lack of inventoryin October the sale of vehicles registered an increase of 18.9% in Mexico, according to figures from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi).
However, this was not due to a better outlook in the country’s automakers or an improvement in the supply chain. From the perspective of the Mexican Association of the Automotive Industry (AMIA), the impetus has been increased supply of Chinese cars, helping to feed consumer appetites.
From January to October, 869,628 vehicles have been sold in the country, of which 584,209 are imported, that is, 67.1% of the total. China is the main importerwith 136,019 units, followed by Brazil, with 79,663 units, and USA, with 83,113 vehicles.
Guillermo Rosales, president of the Mexican Association of Automotive Distributors (AMDA), explains that this trend has brought changes in the logistics structure of the countrywhich at the same time generates new challenges in merchandise distribution that comes by import.
“As the supply from Asia increases, a region in which there is no significant share of exports in Mexican manufacturing, it forces the arrival of vehicles in ships that unload in the Pacific, mainly in Lázaro Cárdenas, have to send empty godmothers to unload these vehicles to the port in order to return with the cars for distribution, which creates new challenges,” he recently said at a press conference.
Last year this phenomenon did not exist. According to figures from the General Directorate of Ports, from January to September 2021, the bulk of vehicle imports came from the Gulf-Caribbean region with 198,035 units, which mainly entered from the port of Veracruz, while imports of automobiles throughout the Pacific totaled 154,801 units.
The improvement in the supply chain of the Asian giant has reversed this. From January to September of this year, 293,941 cars entered the Pacific, a volume in which the port of Lázaro Cárdenas ranks first. Meanwhile, imports from the Gulf-Caribbean were 222,145 vehicles.