Car production in Spain falls by 4 percent in February

MADRID, March 23 (Xinhua) -- The production of new vehicles in Spain fell by 4.3 percent during February compared with the same month in 2017, according to figures published by the Spanish Association of Vehicle Producers (ANFAC) on Friday.

ANFAC confirms that 263,983 vehicles were published in February; 208,792 of which were private cars, with 50,285 industrial vehicles. The number of cars produced in February was 5.8 percent down on the same period last year, while there was just a 0.2 reduction in the production of industrial vehicles.

Taking the first two months of 2018 as a whole, there is slightly better news for the Spanish automobile industry as the total of 507,689 vehicles produced in January and February is 1.9 percent up on the first two months of 2018.

In terms of exports, 211,026 vehicles were shipped abroad in February, a descent of 5.2 percent in February 2017, although taking January and February together have seen exports rise by 1.6 percent when compared with last year.

ANFAC attributes the poor numbers for February to the "continued fall in car sales in the United Kingdom," which is the third biggest destination for Spanish produced vehicles and also to the fact that some lines of production are coming to an end and being substituted by new vehicles.

Speaking to Xinhua earlier this week, ANFAC's Director of Communications, Alfredo Randulfe, highlighted that Spain is the second largest automobile producer in Europe and the eighth most important in the world and contributes 10 percent of Spain's GNP.

He said Spain needed to "maintain" its competitiveness and to "not lose sight of the fact that other countries, such as Brazil," were catching up in the global market. Enditem