Overview of Colombia Car/Motorcycle and Parts Industry

A. Car/Motorcycle Industry
Cars made in Colombia are mainly exported to the near markets such as Ecuador, Panama, and Peru. With its industrial output value occupies 6.2% of its GDP, Colombia is the fifth largest car producer next to Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, and Chile in Latin America.

Colombia car market has exhibited prosperity since 2010. In 2011, the total output of Colombia car industry focusing on the assembled cars such as passenger cars, trucks, and buses increased 21.8%, the exports up 27%, and market expansion up 15% reaching a great sales performance of 320,000 new units. The industry estimates the sales volume will reach 350,000 units in 2012. 41.4% of Colombia car market are occupied by the domestic production, 58.36% by imported cars (15.5% from Korea, 14.4% from Mexico, 5.5% from China, 5% from Japan, and 4.5% from India). The main assembly factories include GM, Sofasa-Renault, Mazda, Mercedes, Benz, and HINO-Toyota.

In terms of motorcycle industry, Colombia is the second largest producer in South America, next to Brazil; in 2011, the total sales amounted to 500,000 units. The industry estimates the sales volume will achieve 600,000 units in 2012 and in the following years, the output of Colombia will grow 15~20% with 7 million motorcycles in use in 2020. The main assembly factories include AUTECO (producing Kawasaki, Bajaj, and Kymco), Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, AKT, UM, YUCO, Jialing, and Jincheng.

B. Parts Industry
The total output of parts for cars/motorcycles made in Colombia in 2011 amounted to USD3.8 billion and export value was USD480 million (up 9% over 2010). The main export items include tempered glass, shock sensors, and brakes and main export destinations are Ecuador, Venezuela, the US, Peru and Mexico. In 2011, the total import value of parts for cars/motorcycles reached USD1.56 billion (up 6% over 2010). The parts output in Colombia mostly comes from Compañía Colombiana Automotriz (supplying Ford, Mazda, and Mitsubishi), GM Colmotores (supplying Chevrolet) and Sofasa (supplying Renault and Toyota). In addition, multinational enterprises such as Michelin, Good Year and Dupont also set up factories in Colombia while the rest are 200 middle and small size producers.