Automotive major Stellantis plants in Argentina, Brazil still affected by floods aftermath

SAO PAULO (ICIS)–Stellantis’ facilities in Argentina remain shut and its plant in Goiana, northeast Brazil, has also partially stopped, a spokesperson for the global automotive major said to ICIS on Friday.

In Argentina, Stellantis operates production facilities in Ferreyra, in the Cordoba province in the north, where trade with Rio do Grande do Sul is commonplace. The company said in mid-May those facilities had to shut due to the lack of inputs.

On Friday, it added Goiana has now been affected too and it is partially out of operations.

“Both plants in Argentina are still out of production. In Brazil, Goiana facilities has partially stopped,” the spokesperson said.

Stellantis is the result of the merger between Fiat Chrysler and PSA Group.

Germany’s automotive major Volkswagen stopped production at three plants in the state of Sao Paulo in mid-May due to the lack of inputs.

The company had not responded to a request for comment at the time of writing.

Rio Grande do Sul is Brazil’s southernmost state and petrochemicals-intensive automotive parts producers there are major suppliers to the rest of Brazil and Argentina.

As of Friday, the emergency services in Rio Grande do Sul said 169 had died due to the floods, while 44 remains unaccounted for.

Nearly 40,000 people are still taking refuge in shelters, while 580,000 remain displaced from their homes.

Nearly 2.4 million have been affected by the floods.

Earlier in May, a spokesperson for Brazil’s automotive trade group Anfavea did not respond to questions from ICIS about the impact of the floods on the sector’s annual output.

However, it said the trade group would publish its first estimates at a press conference on 6 June, when it will publish production, sales and export data for May.

In early May, at the press conference presenting April data, the trade group said it feared the sector could be hit given Rio Grande do Sul’s importance to Brazil’s auto industry.

The petrochemicals hub of Triunfo, near Porto Alegre, returned to operations on 20 May, led by Brazil’s polymers major Braskem, but a consultant in Porto Alegre said to ICIS the reopening there was the odd one out amid widespread disruption for most industrial sectors.

As of Friday, the Port of Porto Alegre, the state’s largest city, remained shut, although Rio Grande and Pelotas ports were operating normally.

The emergency services in Rio Grande do Sul said 169 had died due to the floods, while 44 remains unaccounted for.

Nearly 40,000 people are still taking refuge in shelters, while 580,000 remain displaced from their homes. Nearly 2.4 million have been affected by the floods in the 12-million people state of Rio Grande do Sul.

The automotive industry is a major global consumer of petrochemicals, and chemicals make up more than one-third of the raw material costs for an average vehicle.

The automotive sector drives demand for chemicals such as polypropylene (PP), along with nylon, polystyrene (PS), styrene butadiene rubber (SBR), polyurethane (PU), methyl methacrylate (MMA) and polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), among others.

Front page picture: Stellantis’ facilities in Ferreyra, province of Cordoba, Argentina; archive image
Source: Stellantis