Brazil still holds “tremendous potential,” says BorgWarner

Registrations, production and export in Brazil’s truck market witnessed a tremendous slump during 2015, and figures continued to decline into the fourth quarter. The passenger car market has not fared much better. Recent data from Associacao Nacional dos Fabricantes de Veiculos Automotores (ANFAVEA) shows a decline of 68,793 units, or 29%, in new passenger car registrations during November 2015 when compared to November 2014. The sum of new car registrations between January and November 2015 fell 22.6% compared to the same 11-month period in 2014.

ICIS, a source of market intelligence for global petrochemical markets, suggests that the continued collapse of the market is linked to “the negative microeconomic situation in the region, amid continued political uncertainty and social unrest as the country’s GDP is forecast to fall by 3% in 2015.”

But it’s not all doom and gloom. In February 2015, BorgWarner began R&D operations at a new engineering centre in Itatiba City, Brazil. Speaking to Automotive World, Andrew Almy, Director of Marketing, Americas, voices confidence in the market, and says that the facility is benefitting from strong demand.