The European Union, Japan, the United States and Mexico were the largest automotive exporters in 2019, according to statistics from the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The automotive sector is one of the most globalized in the value chains of the world, with a strong tendency to robotization and with a production concentrated in few countries.

The European Union led the main automotive exporters, with sales outside that block of 699,000 million dollars, followed by Japan (268,000 million), the United States (139,000 million) and Mexico (119,000 million).

Despite having the largest automotive market in the world, China is in seventh place in this classification.

Automotive exporters

Of the 10 countries in this ranking, only two presented positive year-on-year growth in 2019: the United States and South Korea, with increases of 3% in both cases.

Other major automotive exporters were: Canada, the United Kingdom, Thailand and Turkey.

As early as 2020, preliminary data points to a 9% contraction in trade in manufactured goods in the first quarter.

Exports of automotive products and clothing have decreased by 12% and office and telecommunications equipment by 4 percent.

Other sectors

Imports of automotive products contracted by 60% in April 2020 due to the closure of automotive assembly plants in Europe and North America and a decrease in vehicle purchases.

In turn, trade in electronic products decreased 2.4% year-on-year in April 2020. In the mobile phone sector, leading brands transferred production to several manufacturing service providers amid tighter containment measures .

However, the stringent blocking measures imposed in the Republic of Korea interrupted the supply of basic inputs for the assembly of mobile phones, which had a negative impact on the provision of manufacturing services.