Fiat, Marchionne's "headaches" on August XNUMXth. The problems on the Brazil, India and USA fronts

Sergio Marchionne will feel rather surrounded in these August holidays. As he prepares to land in Russia as well, there are at least three international fronts that are giving the CEO of Fiat some headaches (yesterday the stock dropped by 4,26%, thanks to fears about economic growth, even if today he is recovering ): the sales of the 500 in the USA, the alliance with Tata at risk and now also the loss of the primacy in Brazil.
Just named "Company of the Year 2011" by the prestigious magazine Istoè Dinheiro, the Brazilian Fiat has in fact received a bitter overtaking by the German Volkswagen after nine years of market leadership. In the first fifteen days of August, the Lingotto in fact suffered a drop in sales of 4,4% on an annual basis compared to an increase in overall registrations of the Brazilian car market of 1,7% (data from Fenabrave, the Brazilian federation of sector). Thus, Fiat's market share fell to 22,35% from 23,78% in the first fortnight of August 2010 and from 23,77% in July 2011. It recovered positions, while Volkswagen rose to 24,53, 23,51%, up from 2010% in August 22,26 and 2011 in July XNUMX.
Brazil is one of the most important markets for Marchionne's Fiat: present for 35 years with 12 million vehicles produced, it has also recently landed with the Freemont model while work on the group's second factory in the country has just started. 30% of the group's worldwide sales come from here and much of the future growth will come from here: the car market is expected to increase by 5,9% in 2011. From the Indian front, together with Brazil one of the strengths of the Marchionne's strategy, however concerns emerge on the alliance with Tata stipulated in 2006, raised by the president of the Indian group, Ratan Tata. In a recent interview with the Calcutta Telegraph, Tata said that it is necessary to review the terms of the collaboration with the Italian manufacturer to make it more realistic as "the estimates in terms of volumes of our jv have not materialized". "More for Fiat than for us, adds Tata, because there has been a deterioration in the market". From the numbers in Tata's annual report consulted by Radiocor, it emerges that there were 20.493 sales of Fiat cars (including Fiat 500, Punto and Linea) in the financial year that ended in March 2011. The Indian group instead achieved sales of over 269.100 units (including Fiat, Jaguar and Land Rover) from 232 a year earlier.
Finally, there is the US front, where, after the acquisition of Chrysler, Marchionne is at home. Yet even there the sales of the Lingotto are struggling to take off. At least as far as the Fiat 500 is concerned: the goal of 50 units, said Laura Soave, head of the brand in the USA, seems difficult to achieve given that only about 8 have been sold so far. The problem would derive from the delays in setting up the distribution network. But now the advertising campaign, they assure from Turin, is kicking into gear to make up for lost time.