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36 May 2018 | AutoData EVENT » AUTODATA SEMINAR “If it is already so difficult to integrate the two countries, which have been partners since the 1980s, imagine doing this outside the region. So the first step is to show how it works on our bloc”. The idea of having a unique car in Mer- cosur bringswith it the advantage of redu- cing the number of parts and the costs of engineering and production, thanks to the lower complexity. And it adds to these advantages in de- velopment and in the financial and opera- tional areas: “This will lead to more volume, more scale, which leads to more efficiency. Ge- neralMotors pioneered the Brazil-Argentina partnership and this, for us, is the best way, which makes sense”. The AutoData seminar also witnessed Antonio Filosa’s first public appearance as FCA’s new president, Fiat Chrysler Auto- mobiles, for Latin America. On the stage of the event he stated that one of the company’s objectives is to ex- pand sales strongly in the South American region and, for that, one of the strategies adopted is the opening of a commercial office in Chile. The executive also said that good de- mand for theArgo hatch inArgentina is ex- pected to result in a variation of the mix of production of the model in Betim, MG, to meet the orders of the neighboring coun- try more promptly – 4 thousand 400 units were sold there from January to March , according to data from Adefa. FLEX TO 2 Pablo Di Si of Volkswagen also atten- ded the seminar promoted by AutoData and said he believes that in the second half the governments of Argentina and Brazil will anticipate the bases of a new bilateral automotive agreement. The current one, scheduled to run from 2015 to 2020, establishes flex – control cal- culation of the amount of dollars in the au- tomotive trade of the two countries - of 1,5, that is, for each US$ 1 imported from the factories installed inArgentina the Brazilian companies can export US$ 1.5. According to Di Si, Brazil is interested in increasing flex and extending the term of the agree- ment, and that “if it is to improve the transit of vehicles from one country to another the new agreement can be anticipated. What cannot happen is a restriction on the commercial chain”. The executive believes that the flex index may jump from 1.5 to 2, although it happens gradually from year to year. Closing the event Marcos Forgioni, vice president of international sales andmarke- ting for MAN, showed the scenario of the foreignmarket for trucks and buses: “Expor- ting is as difficult as selling in the domestic market, but it has its peculiarities”. He recalled that in Brazil only 11% of the total of 1.7 million kilometers of roads are paved, so “our products are geared towards developing countries and thus we have a strong presence in Latin America and in Africa”. MAN’s largest export markets in volume are Argentina, with 39%, Mexico, 28%, and South Africa, 17%. He said that in order towin the customer it is essential to build good sales and after sales service networks in the countries ser- ved. More: depending on the case it may makemore sense to produce locally, even in CKD or SKD systems: “It is necessary to analyze each Market carefully”. According to VW’s Pablo Di Si, the calculation of the flex that regulates the bilateral automotive trade can jump gradually from the current 1.5 to 2 in the coming years