Madrid
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The microchip crisis has been, along with economic uncertainty, the main conditioning factor for vehicle production in Spain throughout 2021, which has contracted 7.5%. A situation of lack of supply that has determined that, throughout 2021, the manufacturing rates have been reduced both in the production centers in Spain and those located in Europe.
According to production data released today by the
National Association of Manufacturers, ANFAC, during the last year vehicle production levels have been registered even lower than those obtained in 2020, a period already very negative due to factory closures for two months.
If we compare with the last pre-pandemic year (2019), when production closed with 2,822,360 units, the manufacture of vehicles has been reduced by 724,000 vehicles, 25.6%.
Only, in the last month of December of the year, the Spanish factories they have reduced a quarter of what was produced compared to December 2020, reaching 147,404 units, -25.1% less. Estimates indicate that this situation of scarcity will improve during 2022 but will not be fully regulated until the beginning of 2023.
These falls have also occurred in the main European vehicle-producing countries, as is the case of Germany (the main producer in Europe) with a fall of -11.7% for 2021 or from the United Kingdom (-6.1%) or Italy (-1.5%) with the data accumulated until November.
During 2021, the Spanish factories have continued to increase the manufacture of zero and low emission vehicles, reaching 11.6% of the total production share. In the year to date, a total of 242,380 units have been produced (electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids, conventional hybrids, natural gas and LPG), increasing by 47.1% compared to 2020.
Electrified vehicles, which already have 17 models in production in Spain, managed to increase the manufacturing share by 50% compared to the previous year, reaching 9.3% of total vehicle production. During 2021, 39.3% more vehicles were assembled up to a total of 194,936 units. Of these, 184,422 units corresponded to electrified passenger cars (pure electric BEVs and plug-in hybrids PHEVs), which increased by 41.1% compared to 2020, and represented 11.1% of the total passenger car units produced.
By type of vehicle, during the month of December, compared to the same month of 2020, the manufacture of passenger cars and SUVs has suffered a significant drop of -28.6%, with 112,501 units, while for the accumulated figure for the year it reaches 1,662,174 units (-7.7%). For its part, the production of commercial and industrial vehicles* has registered a drop of 11% in the last month, to 34,903 units and at the end of 2021 it achieved 435,959 units produced, which represents a reduction of 6.8%.
Exports also fall
During 2021, 1,820,727 units have been exported, 6.7% less than in 2020, a year marked by Covid-19. In the month of December, exports have registered a fall of 26% compared to the same month of the previous year, up to a total of 127,785 units exported.
In this case, in addition to the direct impact of the semiconductor crisis, the slow evolution of the European markets In this last year, it has made it difficult for national vehicle exports to reach pre-pandemic levels. In the last month, destinations to Europe account for the largest share of exports with 7 out of 10 vehicle shipments, but they have decreased by 25.2% compared to the same month of the previous year.
In the TOP 5 destinations, France, Germany, Italy and UK They continue to lead the ranking, where Belgium is incorporated to the detriment of Turkey. In the case of Turkey, it is worth noting its sharp drop of 55.9% in the demand for Spanish vehicles, breaking with the upward trend of recent months
Compared to the rest of the continents in the last month, exports to Africa fell by 1.1%, despite the increase in destinations such as Morocco (5.9%), Egypt (12.4% or South Africa (210.2%). Exports to America have been reduced by 20.2%, due to falls in Mexico (-42.5%) or Chile (-30%). Both shipments to Asia and Oceania reduced their demand by -53.1% and -21.4%, respectively, due to falls in Japan (-69.5%) and Australia (-29.9%).
By vehicle type compared to the same month in 2020, passenger cars suffer a decrease of 30.1% in exports, up to 99,855 units shipped abroad, while in 2021 the shipment of 1,455,634 units (-8.4%) was achieved. For their part, commercial and industrial vehicles registered a decrease of 6.2% in exports in December, accumulating a total of 27,930 units exported and for the accumulated figure for the year, 365,093 shipments were reached, which managed to increase by 0.7%. Over the previous year.