By Tony Danby Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES SAO PAULO -(Dow Jones)- Brazilian industrywide combine-harvester and tractor sales should fall next year due to the global credit crisis, said Andre Carioba, South American president of farm equipment maker Agco Corp (AG).
Domestic sales of combine-harvesters are likely to see the biggest drop of farm machinery in 2009, to between 3,000 and 3,500 units from more than 4,000 expected to be sold in 2008, mainly due to the difficulty in getting financing, Carioba told Dow Jones Newswires Wednesday.
Brazilian combine-harvester sales, which were fewer than 2,000 units in 2007, are generally reliant on loans from banks or the lending arms of manufacturers, while the cheaper tractors can often be bought with the farmer's own money, he said.
Carioba said domestic sales of tractors, the most sold type of farm machinery, should reach around 43,000 units in 2008, above last year's sales figure. However, Carioba warned that tractor sales will dip to around 38,000 units in 2009 if the financial crisis continues.
He said that 3,500 tractors and 350 combine-harvesters were sold in November.
He also warned that a recent Brazilian civil court action in the state of Mato Grosso - that told equipment manufacturers to halt the repossession of farm machinery - sends the wrong message to farmers.
The court decision suggests that farmers don't need to be responsible for their debts and this could lead to some banks being even more cautious about lending, according to Carioba.
In other news, Carioba said that Agco Corp intends to maintain its investment plan of $150 million between 2008 and 2010 in Brazil.
The company aims to open a new spare-parts distribution center in Sao Paulo state -- in place of four existing centers -- in the first quarter of 2009.
-By Tony Danby; Dow Jones Newswires; 55-11-2847-4523; brazil@dowjones.com
Click here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front page of today's most important business and market news, analysis and commentary: http://www.djnewsplus.com/al?rnd=DhiqXiPFgwaKAmv0bXc80w%3D%3D. You can use this link on the day this article is published and the following day.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 03, 2008 17:00 ET (22:00 GMT)

Publié le 03 Décembre 2008 Copyright © 2008 Dowjones