The Emergence of the Light Commercial Vehicles Production Hub in Argentina

The aim of this chapter is to analyse the main characteristics and performance of the Argentinian automotive sector during the first part of the twenty-first century. The chapter begins by describing the sector’s evolution in its subsequent stages. In this trajectory, two main trends are highlighted. Firstly, the constant trade deficit of the sector in contexts of economic crises. Secondly, the productive specialisation of the Argentinian automotive industry in medium pick-up trucks in the second decade of the century. The particularity of the latter is that this process was mainly driven by the market, differentiating this case from the Thai productive specialisation through its “product champion” policy. The research is based on subject-specific literature and various statistical sources.