Argentine automotive industry: Triple strategy of insertion in global chains (1990-2019)

Abstract

Over the last 30 years, the terminal sector of the argentine automotive industry has deepened its ties with the global automotive market by participating in Global Value Chains (GVC). The objective of this article is to analyze the strategy that the sector developed to be inserted in the GVcs from the last decade of the 20th century until 2019. In order to achieve this objective, we first described the productive reorganization around the GVCs of the world automotive industry and the manufacturing transformations operated at the national level. Secondly, we analyzed the data on production compiled by the business chamber and the information on trade exchanges recorded by INDEC. In turn, based on the TIVA database, (which measures trade in value added), the sectoral and international origin of value added in Argentine automotive exports was differentiated. On this basis, we distinguished the impact on the country's external accounts of chain trade (upstream and downstream) from "traditional trade". In conclusion, we argue that this insertion is based on three channels which, with plateaus and staggered stages, became progressively more important during the period analyzed: 1) the incorporation of parts and inputs from abroad into domestic production, 2) the export of locally manufactured cars and 3) the sale of imported vehicles in the local market. We have called this process a triple strategy of international insertion in the GVcs.