MEXICO: Mexico’s auto exports slid 5.9 percent in November, compared to a year earlier, the Mexican Auto Industry Association (AMIA) said on Monday, as Volkswagen shipped fewer cars for the third month in a row.
Mexico’s auto production rose 4 percent to 296,338 vehicles, while it exported 223,797 autos, AMIA said. The auto sector makes up about 30 percent of Mexico’s exports.
AMIA President Eduardo Solis said that the decline in exports was due to falls of more than 70 percent in exports to both Brazil and China, compared to the same month in 2014. Volkswagen’s Mexico production and exports fell for the third month in a row, according to AMIA’s data.
Exports of Volkswagen vehicles dropped 27.6 percent in November, compared to the year-earlier period, the highest drop of the eight companies that export cars from Latin America’s second-largest economy.
The German automaker has been embroiled in a major global scandal after the company said in September it had rigged emissions tests of cars with diesel engines sold in the United States. A spokesman for Volkswagen Mexico, Israel Victoria, said in an email that production and exports are in line with the company’s plans for 2015.
