Polish car exports are on the rise shutterstock

Last year was disastrous for the Polish automotive industry. The news that Fiat’s factory in Tychy would lay off 1,500 workers hit the market particularly hard. But the industry seems to be headed for a surprising – and welcome – bounce back.

Poland reported a rise in the number of newly registered cars by 8.8 percent, the second-best result in the EU, behind the UK with 11.5 percent.

Throughout Europe the number of new cars registered dropped by 8.7 percent to 885,200, according to January data from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association. This is the lowest figure since 1990, when the association began collecting the data.

Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne told Bloomberg he expected car makers’ total losses in Europe to come in at around €5 billion for 2012.

But export data in the automotive industry from November herald some improvement in Poland. According to AutomotiveSuppliers.pl, Polish companies exported €1.52 billion worth of cars and car parts in that month. While that still represents a 3.49 percent drop y/y, experts had predicted a much bigger drop considering the decline in EU markets.

Car parts in demand

The biggest drivers of improvement are car parts and car accessories, as evidenced by data on Poland’s exports to Germany, which accounts for over 31 percent of Poland’s sales abroad of cars and car parts.

And while car production in Germany fell by 5 percent in November, Poland sold 18 percent more car parts to its western neighbor y/y. Total exports of car parts to the EU (which accounts for nearly 81 percent of Poland’s total export volume) increased by 5.96 percent, while sales to other, non-EU markets fell by some 22 percent.

Overall, in the first 11 months of 2012, Poland exported €16.5 billion worth of car products (7.3 percent less than in corresponding period of 2011). The export of car parts and accessories was the only sector where the value increased (by 4.5 percent) and was worth €6.2 billion. The other sectors – cars and car engines – registered drops of 22 percent and 13.4 percent respectively.

Thanks to the relatively good November results, AutomotiveSuppliers.pl predicts that Polish automotive exports in 2012 will come to €17.8 billion (compared to €19.1 billion in 2011).

Jacek Ciesnowski