Metallurgy and electronics in most component components supplied in Portugal
The metallurgical / metalworking and electrical / electronics areas represent 63% of car components purchased in Portugal, in 385 factories belonging to 358 companies, mostly demanding (85%) in the North and Center regions, reveal data from an association in the sector.
According to information made available to Lusa by the Automobile Industry Suppliers Association (AFIA), metallurgy and metalworking account for almost a third (32%) of the components manufactured in our country, followed by the electrical and electronics industries (31 %), of plastics, rubbers and other composite materials (18%), textiles and coatings (11%) and assembly of systems (5%).
According to the same data, as 358 companies in Portugal – 63% of the majority of Portuguese capital and 37% of the majority of foreign capital – are located in the North Region (55%), followed by the Center Region, with around 30%. The region of Lisbon and Vale do Tejo brings together around 8% of the industries in the sector and the Alentejo 6%.
By district, the 385 factories are located predominantly on the North and Center coast: Aveiro has 83 industrial units, Porto has 82, Braga has 48 and Viana do Castelo 31, these four territories representing 63% of the total industrial units . The district of Lisbon has 26 factories, Santarém and Leiria 22, Setúbal 20 and Coimbra 11.
There are also automobile component factories in Viseu (14), Évora (10), Bragança (5), Guarda (4) and Vila Real (3), while Portalegre and Castelo Branco have two industrial units each, being Beja and Faro the only districts where these facilities do not exist, according to AFIA.
Between 2015 and 2019, the average annual growth rate of turnover stood at 8.8%, reaching 11.9 billion in turnover in 2019, before the covid-19 pandemic.
In 2020, turnover was 10.4 billion euros (about 5.6% of the national Gross Domestic Product), 12.6% less than in the previous year.
According to José Couto, president of AFIA, 85% of companies decreased their turnover in 2020 compared to 2019, “and 73% say that, in 2021, it will have a volume below 2019”.
“The decrease is smaller than what happened in 2020, but it is still relevant. And, of these companies, 43% have registered and expected falls greater than 20%, which is a very important fall”, he noted.
In relative terms, by region, the North represents 54% of the turnover and 57% of the 61 thousand jobs in the sector in 2020, while the Center brought together 24% of the turnover and 27% of the jobs. On the other hand, in Lisbon and Vale do Tejo the turnover (18%) was higher than the employment generated (10% of the total) by the suppliers of automotive components.
As 358 companies are 0.9% of the total manufacturing industry, which represent 8.8% of jobs. Between 2015 and 2019, more than 14 thousand jobs were created in the automotive components sector, an ever-increasing trend, which contributed to an average annual employment growth rate of 6.6% during this period.
From 2019 to 2020, in the midst of the covid-19 pandemic, employment fell by 2% (about a thousand jobs), currently standing at 61 thousand people (58% men and 42% women, a proportion that, according to AFIA, has been constant).
In 2021, given the reduction in orders in the automotive sector and, among other things, the need for companies to lower fixed costs, an association warned of the possibility of losing another four thousand jobs, which would represent a return to the levels of expos of 2017.
Last year, exports totaled 8.6 billion euros (82% of total production and 16.1% of foreign sales of tradable goods), mostly to Europe, a continent that absorbed more than 90% of the total. exported components. The main destination market was Spain (30%), followed by Germany (21.2%) and France (11.8%).
In the same five-year period, from 2015 to 2019, AFIA indicates that the average annual growth rate in exports stood at 7.3%. The total volume of exports fell, however, 10.8% in 2020 compared to 2019, from 9.7 to 8.6 billion euros.
“We have a great company in exports. If we are not able to find instruments to help these companies, our export account will probably fall, because these companies, losing exclaim, are no longer in the European business game”, said José Couto.