Automaker says schedule could be delayed by up to 60 days if machines held at the Port of Salvador are not released

BYD fears that the planned schedule to begin assembling its electric cars at the Camaçari factory, in the Metropolitan Region of Salvador, will be delayed by up to 60 days (two months) due to the government’s slowness in analyzing the automaker’s request for a tax exception regime for machines. which it imported from China and will be used in the body movement and transfer system on the car factory’s assembly line, the company stated. These machines have been detained at the Port of Salvador since August 28th.

According to the company, the machinery is not locally manufactured and therefore falls under the tax incentive regime. BYD announced that it would begin operations in Bahia in December this year. First assembling the cars sent ready from China. Then, with the implementation of assembly lines, cars would be produced in Camaçari.

“Since May we have been waiting with the request that was made to the Foreign Trade Chamber so that we could have this Ex-Tariff regime”, said the senior vice-president of the Chinese automaker in Brazil, Alexandre Baldy, to the news agency Reuters news. According to him, in July the government requested more information about the imported items and components, which the company responded to. Since then, BYD has been awaiting a deliberation from the Executive Management Committee of the Chamber of Foreign Commerce (Gecex) on the reconsideration of the tariff exemption request.

Asked if the delay could delay the start of operations at the factory in Camaçari, Baldy said: “Certainly. I don’t have a precise deadline, but today I say that at least 60 days of delay could occur.”

When contacted, Gecex said that there is nothing on the part of the MDIC (Ministry of Development, Industry, Commerce and Services) preventing the release of the cargo and that the company can remove it “if it assesses that it cannot wait for the legal process of consultation on the Ex-Tariff, paying the appropriate import taxes — or wait for a decision on your request, after sending the requested information”. The automaker, in turn, said that “it has already provided all the necessary clarifications to the MDIC and is moving towards a joint solution”.

The machines stopped at the port of Bahia represent around 15% of the total capacity that will be implemented in Camaçari. BYD said that the absence of machines makes it completely unfeasible to start production at the unit, since “all this equipment is essential for the start of production in Camaçari”.