Sao Paulo (EFE) annual.
The administrative director of the union, Wellington Messias Damasceno, affirmed in a statement shared with EFE that the high interest rates make business “impracticable”.
The trade unionist pointed directly to the Central Bank for not lowering them, a decision that “negatively affects the whole of society at this time”, and recalled that workers buy cars with the help of financing and that “with such expensive credit, that is not happening”.
Germany’s Volkswagen said on Tuesday that its decision to halt production at its three factories in Brazil was due to “market stagnation.”
The stoppage at the Volkswagen plants in Brazil
The Sao José dos Pinhais factory, in the state of Paraná, where the T-Cross model is manufactured, will have one of its two work shifts stopped for between two and five months and the other, from the 26th to the 30th of this month.
The Taubaté factory, in Sao Paulo, where the Polo Track and Novo Polo are produced, will stop between June 26 and 30.
As for the one in Sao Bernardo do Campo, also in the surroundings of the São Paulo capital, where four other models are manufactured, there will be 10-day collective vacations for its workers starting on July 10.
Volkswagen’s decision comes a few weeks after the launch of the plan known as “People’s Car”, through which the Government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva offers tax credits to automakers in exchange for discounts of up to 11% on the sale final.
Vice President Geraldo Alckmin said during the program’s announcement that buyer discounts will last about four months until interest rates fall.
Credit requests by assembly companies, including Volkswagen, reached 84% of the resources initially offered by the Government for light vehicles, according to official data released last Friday.
Meanwhile, the minutes of the last meeting of the Central Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee released on Tuesday pointed to the possibility of a cut in interest rates at the next meeting, scheduled for early August.