Automobile assembly will grow 12% and auto parts production will double, according to forecasts made by the associations of manufacturing companies.

The automotive industry in Mexico foresees that 2021 will be marked by growth between 12% and 24% from the production and export of light vehicles to the manufacture of auto parts and components, respectively, derived from the good forecasts and the favorable environment that persists in the United States and Canada, despite the fact that the Covid-19 pandemic phenomenon will continue. Meanwhile, in the domestic market, a recovery in sales is also expected, as long as financing improves and inflation is maintained.

This was announced by representatives of the Mexican Automotive Industry Association (AMIA), the National Auto Parts Industry (INA) and the Mexican Association of Automotive Distributors (AMDA) during their press conference at the beginning of the year, who were confident that the Covid-19 pre-pandemic levels will be achieved.

Fausto Cuevas, director of AMIA, estimated that the production and export of light vehicles will increase 12% in 2021, to reach 3 million 404,999 units assembled and 3 million 3,622 units exported.

Meanwhile, INA’s president, Óscar Albín, was confident of exceeding the 24% growth by 2021 in auto parts factoring, to reach 96,971 million dollars, a figure that would still not surpass 2019, when 97,834 million dollars were achieved.

U.S. analysts forecast that the U.S. auto market would surpass sales of 16 million units, after 2020 marketed 14 million 463,000 units. “This growth is going to pull the Mexican industry to produce and export more,” said the director of AMIA.

For the Mexican domestic market, it is estimated to increase 11.2% the sale of light cars in 2021, which distributors would place 1 million 55,919 new units, taking into account an expected 3.6% growth of the Mexican economy, highlighted Guillermo Rosales, director of AMDA.

According to the World Bank’s “World Economic Outlook 2021” report, there will be a world economic expansion of 4% in 2021, optimism that will be contagious due to the initial distribution of vaccines against Covid-19, which will be expanded throughout the year. However, the recovery is likely to be moderate.

This effect has been transferred to the automotive industry to resume its path of positioning itself as the engine of the Mexican economy, in terms of contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), with the arrival of foreign currency and the generation of jobs.

In this regard, the president of the INA reported that the auto parts sector recovered jobs during the second half of the year, after the loss recorded in the second quarter of 2020, which made it one of the main industries contributing sources of manufacturing jobs with 843,000 jobs, above the food industry with 834,000 jobs.