There are over 500 auto parts producers in Brazil. Most companies in the industry fall within the category of small or medium-size businesses. The industry had 196,500 employees in 2005, and the factory capacity utilization rate was 87%. Investments in the same year totaled US$ 1.4 billion (2004: US$ 843 million).
In 2005, 56.6% of all companies in the industry were domestically owned and 33.3% were foreign owned. 6.7% were operations with a foreign majority holding and approximately 2% were mixed capital operations. Foreign investment capital accounted for 76.9% of total investment in the sector in 2005. Foreign companies accounted for 87.7% of sales. They also accounted for 79.2% of total capital value.
The main destinations for Brazilian auto parts in 2005 were vehicle manufacturers (60%), after-sales and spare parts outlets (12%), the automotive export market (21%) and intersectoral customers (7%).
Brazil has a number of state-of-the-art production facilities, including modular plants where suppliers are directly integrated into the production process. Market analysts report that the locally manufactured component content is particularly high in the compact vehicle segment – at over 95%.
