The automakers reach the end of the year with a tie with little pleasure

And while that was happening, sales at dealerships were “flying”: a growing supply of collateral loans below inflation combined with a greater supply of national and imported vehicles had boosted zero-kilometer registrations by almost 80% (77.8%) between January and June.

In this second half of the year, that favorable panorama turned around within the factories: vehicle manufacturing accumulated four consecutive months of declines against the same month of the previous year and by the end of the year the estimate of the ADEFA manufacturers is that the figure will be “similar” to the 506,000 units of last year, which will have fallen in a similar proportion to that 15% increase in the first six months.

The key to this fall was the loss of foreign markets: exports went from increasing 2.2% to accumulating a 10% drop in the first ten months of the year. The local industry, which had sold almost 256,000 vehicles abroad between January and October 2024, fell to just under 230,000.

In an important factory like Stellantis in El Palomar, where Peugeot vehicles are produced and which this year aims to produce 75,000 units, this drop in exports was strongly felt: inside the company, the numbers for 2025 show a sale to Brazil and other external destinations of 21,000 units of Peugeot 208 and Peugeot 2008, against 28,000 units a year ago. El Palomar’s numbers are going to end up, since production will be 6% higher than the 71,000 units in 2024. But the decline in export sales cut back on productive expansion and, on Tuesday, Stellantis announced that it will advance its “technical stoppage” from the beginning of this month until January 5.

Stellantis’ internal statement talks about “maintenance and conditioning tasks of the industrial system.” But sources from the sector assured that the break of almost 40 days is also due to an “inventory adjustment”, to place the units already produced.

On the outskirts of Rosario, the factory General Motors It maintains its activity but is reducing its staffing to minimum levels. Throughout 2024 and this year there were successive voluntary retirement plans through which the company reduced its staff by almost half: from just over 1,000 workers at the beginning of 2024, there would now be less than 600. According to what the newspaper published this week The Capital of Rosario, citing sources from the Smata union, General Motors disassociated other 90 workers with more than 15 years of seniority, after offering them the equivalent of 120% of their compensation. Clarín consulted the company, where they responded that they would not comment. It is confirmed, yes, that the company will begin its “technical stoppage” and vacation period on December 15, in principle until January 18.

General Motors produces in Rosario the Chevrolet Trackeran SUV-type vehicle with good sales in the domestic market (with 17,000 units, it occupies ninth place between January and November) but It is also produced in Brazila destination where sales were lower than expected and affected exports to that country. Inside General Motors, at the beginning of the year, there was talk of reaching a production of between 40,000 and 45,000 Trackers, which now would be far from being fulfilled.

Vehicle sales at dealerships also slowed down. It had accumulated a rise of 77,8% in the first semester, it was attenuated to a significant 49,5% at the end of November, with 587,000 patented units but also with a yellow light: sales for the month of November, for the first time in the year, They were lower (-3.9%) than the same month of the previous year. This, despite the fact that there is already a significant supply of tens of thousands of Chinese vehicles that entered without tariffs and that are sold in dealerships at prices ranging from that of an “entry-level” car ($22,000) to products from the so-called “C segment” but at the prices of a B segment SUV ($35,000).

Added to this panorama is the closure of the Nissan pickup factory, where both the Nissan Frontier and the Renault Alaskan were manufactured. In that plant located in Córdoba, in the Santa Isabel neighborhood, Renault has also just announced the end of production of the Sandero, Stepway and Logan models, to make way for the new production line of a compact pickup (after an investment of 350 million dollars) which will only go into production during the second semester of next year.

The Adefa chamber raised its concern about the drop in exports in a recent meeting with Minister Luis Caputo, while the Association of Auto Component Manufacturers (AFAC) indicated in its latest report that the trade deficit in auto parts (due to the greater entry of imported parts, since exports even had a slight increase) grew to 7.4 billion dollars only in the first nine months of the year.

On Tuesday the Auto Parts Commission of the Chamber of Metallurgical and Component Industries of Córdoba (CIMCC): its managers warned that 2026 “It will be a very complicated year in the automotive industry“. They added: “The current situation in Argentina presents a dynamic automotive market but an industry in declinewhere the loss of scale and national content in Córdoba explains much of the country’s productive decline.”

Córdoba is the second automotive hub behind the province of Buenos Aires and the metallurgists from Cordoba made a summary of a year that ends with difficulties:

• The closure of terminals, such as the case of Nissan, which implies the loss of a relevant part of the provincial installed capacity.

• The discontinuation of projects with high local content, such as the Alaskan/Frontier binomial, along with the drop in Cronos production, which significantly reduces the demand for national components and the multiplier impact on the supplier chain.

• The transition towards new global models, such as the Titano/RAM and the Niagara, which with different characteristics have a limited impact in the short term (during 2026).

• The drop in IVECO activity, which reduced its production by 50% and days of suspensions until the first half of 2026.

• VW’s current operation in Córdoba, focused exclusively on the production of trucks with mostly imported components, which implies that its activity does not spill over into the local ecosystem of suppliers or generate significant demand for national auto parts.

One of the measures requested by the metallurgical industrialists of Cordoba was to extend the validity of Mercosur’s trade restrictions (FLEX) beyond the year 2029, when its completion is scheduled and therefore free trade with zero tariffs between Argentina and Brazil. “This extension is essential to provide predictability to bilateral trade, avoid negative impacts derived from competitiveness asymmetries with Brazil and ensure stable conditions for productive planning and investments in the sector,” they claimed.