Guillermo Rosales, executive chairman of the Mexican Association of Automotive Distributors (AMDA), said thefts of uninsured cargo transport on the country’s highways have risen 48.4 percent over the past two years.
He pointed out that, based on data from the Mexican Association of Insurance Institutions (AMIS), 3,026 robberies were recorded in the first half of 2021.
For the same period in 2022, the number rose to 3,734 and, at the end of the first half of this year, the number reached a total of 4,490 incidents.
Rosales highlighted that, from January to June alone, thefts from freight trucks increased by 21 percent.
In January this year, the daily average of vehicles stolen was 28, while recoveries were 14; in February and March, 24 and 13 units in both months; 21 and 12 in April and 24 and 12 in May.
The manager said that the percentage of robberies with violence against insured heavy equipment is 70 percent.
The entities with the highest percentage of robberies with violence are Chiapas, with 78 percent; Sinaloa, with 77 percent; San Luis PotosÃ, Sonora and Zacatecas, with 76 percent each.
“This is a clear evidence of how criminality on the highways is on the rise against heavy transport. The serious and sad part is that this situation has been normalized and nothing has been done to deal with it,” he said at a press conference.
In view of this scenario, he reiterated his call on the security forces to give fine details in this regard. “The result, he said, is not only a willingness to negotiate, but also a favorable outcome to prevent robberies and attacks on cargo transport.”
On his part, Miguel Elizalde, executive president of the National Association of Bus, Truck and Tractor Producers (ANPACT), pointed out that economic growth, the country’s stability and social development, and public safety are an essential condition for companies. “It affects the business environment; However, despite the insecurity we are experiencing, we have record production and export figures.”
Heavy vehicle sales up 43%
According to data from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography, retail sales of heavy vehicles included 4,334 units in July, showing an annual growth of 42.8 per cent, the highest on record for the same period in the last five years.
In aggregate January-July, Inegi reported that 28 thousand 828 heavy trucks were sold, which is an annual increase of 33 percent.
Meanwhile, during July, annual production increased by 8.6 percent to 17,791 heavy vehicles, higher than the pre-pandemic level, when growth was only 3.9 percent in 2019.
Miguel Elizalde, executive president of the National Association of Bus, Truck and Tractor Producers, explained that the positive figures in production are driven by exports, since about 80 percent of what Mexico manufactures is for retail sale abroad. The industry expects more growth in production and exports in the remainder of the year, because “looking at the indicators, we see that we are going to exceed the total achieved in 2022,” he said.
Therefore, he predicted that these would be record figures for production and exports: “We anticipate that the industry will continue to strengthen and with it the prospects for 2024 will improve.”
