Slight decrease of the production after the record of the year 2000 figures

The year 2000 ended with an excellent balance for the Spanish industry. As the situation now is not the same it is necessary to take the data that follow, and who come mostly from the Department of studies in "La Fira de Barcelona" (the economy by sector, 2001), with some caution. However they can be very useful taken with reservations to get a general idea about the structure of the automotive industry in Spain.

Laser cutting in the Seat Martorell plant.

The total production in the year 2000 in Spain surpassed for the first time the 3 million vehicles, with 3.032.874 units. But the year 2000 was exceptional in the majority of the economic sectors as it shows the fact that this figure descended in the year 2001 to levels nearer to 1999, with 2.849.888 vehicles produced.

However, this does not remove that the sector of the automotive sector represent 5% of the GDP in Spain and around 8% in employment and that it was, beside the construction and the tourism, one of the main sectors of the economy that generates more than the fourth part of our sales in the outside.

After a stage of crisis, the Spanish industry experienced from 1997 an important recovery that had his point álgido in the year 2000. Still like this, Spain explains in the actuality with a sector of automotive sector very developed.

According to the data of ANFAC for the year 2001, the last available, the descent of production affected to the vehicles todoterreno (-22,67%), followed of the vans (-12,56%). The segment cuantitativamente more important and that corresponds to the tourisms descended also although less (-6,56%) and remained in the 2.211.172 units. The only segments that grew were the tractocamiones with a bit more than 3%, the heavy industrial vehicles, (2%) and the commercial light, with a bit more than 1%.

The export also has descended 6,7% with little more than 2.336.000 units sold, of the which more than 1.791.000 they correspond to tourisms. Although these data have to contextualise since the increases of the year 2000 were extraordinary, with an upper increase to 8,3% with regard to the previous year. In spite of this, the percentage of exports with regard to the production of vehicles is significant so much in the year 2000 as in the year 2001. The main market of the Spanish exports keeps on being the European.

The automotive industry is one of the key sectors within the Spanish economy. This sector represented 6.7 per cent of GDP and about one quarter of Spanish exports in 1999.
Although the production of vehicles experienced a considerable growth in the year 2000 of 6.33%, it should be noted that the largest increase occurred in 1998 with a 10.3%.
With respect to registrations, has been a trend contrary to production. In the year 2001 were enrolled 1.762.844 units, representing a slight rise on the year 2000 in that sales dropped by 1.94% with 1.716.940 units sold.

According to data from the year 2000, the first post in terms of volume of manufacture of cars in Spain was the Seat-Volkswagen Group with 757.160 units produced, representing 32% of the total. The increase of its production in passenger cars in 2000 was 6.69%, slightly lower than the average for 7,14%.
All brands increased their production in the year 2000, with the exception of Opel Spain, which was a drop of 8,13%, and Mercedes-Benz (- 6.56%). The brand that has experienced a greater increase was the PSA Group (46,51%) and within this group has highlighted Citroën (68,92%).

The fundamental geographical areas in the production and sale of vehicles are United States, Japan and to a lesser extent, Europe. World production of cars in the year 2000 was more than 40 million units. Asia is the market that has experienced greater 6,67% growth, while Europe seems to have reached a ceiling of production as the increase recorded in the year 2000 was 0.37%. Worse is the case of the countries of the Nafta (United States, Mexico and Canada), which experienced a setback in the production of 0.29%.
With regard to commercial vehicles, America and Asia outperform Europe in production while the growth in the year 2000 in the eurozone in Europe was superior to that of the rest of areas (7.98%).

Mergers and agreements between companies truly began in 1998. According to experts in automotive, this trend towards concentration continues and will continue in the future due to the low profitability of the sector, the need for heavy investment in research and development and the obligation to cover markets and product ranges.
However, the merger is non jauja and can be reversed with some projects due to cultural differences between companies, the obsession of the costs or the overestimation of opportunities. Although the current trend is the fusion already begins to speak from the year 2010 it will change the trend and begin to talk of splits.

It is not an isolated event in the evolution of the sector. The automotive sector has always experienced, since the 20s of the last century, cyclical periods of concentrations between undertakings. This has led, with the profusion of technological and strategic agreements between undertakings, there are many ties between automotive groups, or in more familiar terms, has led to that all are "primos-hermanos".

The objectives of this policy are to be present in all markets to better spread risk and carry out a policy of platforms to reduce costs and increase the supply of models.

This wave of agreements has also come to the industry auxiliary of the automotive industry. Europe will be the main stage of these operations as the size of the companies operating in this sector is less than American companies.

As a concrete fact, occurred in 1997 286 mergers in the US industry, 247 in Europe, 48 in Asia and 21 in the rest of the world.

See also...

• Major vehicle manufacturers