Yesterday, a shortage of components suspended morning and afternoon shifts at System 2 of the Stellantis plant in Vigo, which assembles the pickup trucks. Neither it nor the System 1 responsible for the Peugeot 2008 will operate on Sunday night. It’s hard to keep track of all the outages the Balaídos plant has experienced this year due to parts supply issues. And yet the Galician motor industry continues to break export records. According to the balance sheet published by the Minister of Trade yesterday, foreign automotive trade increased by 33% between January and August compared to the same period last year, exceeding 5.5 billion euros. This is an unprecedented figure, representing almost 30% of all sales of Galician companies in other countries this year.
As expected, right on the countdown Perte of the Electric and Connected Vehicle (VEC) paves the way for implementation in the factory The industry is showing its strength with the launch of the STLA Small platform, on which the group will assemble its new electric vehicles and expand its love with the regional automotive ecosystem. The company had already done this in 2020, when, unlike other major motor hubs in Spain, it managed to keep its finger on the pulse of the pandemic and increased its sales abroad by 33%. That year, Galicia was exceptionally positioned as the second largest automobile exporter. It will achieve this once again in 2023, leaving only Catalonia (11 billion 141 million euros) behind. It is ahead of the Basque Country (5,300 million), the Valencian Community (4,032 million), Aragon (3,750 million), Madrid (3,603 million), Castilla y León (3,185 million) and Navarra (2,311 million). The balance of automobile exports across the country reached 40 billion 125 million units, an increase of 32% in the first eight months.
Support from the engine mitigates the impact on society’s external affairs of global economic uncertainty and the intense slowdown in activity and consumption in some reference markets in Europe. Total exports fell for the third consecutive month in August: 4.8% decrease to 2.183 million. The total figure for the year barely remains in positive territory: 19 billion 523 million euros, up 1.6%.
In textiles, another star product of Galicia’s internationalization, an increase was seen in non-knitted clothing (2 billion 348 million euros), while other clothing exports decreased by 1.8 percent (1 billion 426 million euros). Non-fishing sales increased by 1.2% (1,238 million euros) and canned food sales increased by just over 18% (703 million euros). With the ceasefire, which attracted attention in gas and oil prices until the moment the conflict started in Gaza, fuel exports dropped by 56 percent (893 million). Foundry products (304 million) and aluminum and fabricators (495 million) posted strong declines of 22.7% and 28.7%, respectively.