Read our monthly update on global car production, new car sales in key markets, export levels and imports into Australia.
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Global Car Production
- Global semiconductor shortage continues to stifle auto production
- Seat foam shortage could potentially add to production issues
- Luxury car brand Jaguar to go all electric by 2025
- Globally, production is down significantly in major manufacturing bases, excluding China which has nearly recovered
- Japan is down 17% through December 2020
- South Korea is down 7% through January 2021
- The US is down 23% through January 2021
- Germany is down 27% through February 2021, potentially impacted by another COVID wave
- The UK is down 32% through January 2021
- China ended 2020 down only 3%
New Car Sales
- With global supply chains hampered and a drop in demand, new car sales have been sluggish to recover losses in early 2021
- Our data that looks at a 12 month rolling change illustrates this
- In North America, the US is down 16.4% while Mexico is down 34.9% through February 2021. Canada ended 2020 down 20.8%.
- In Europe, Germany is down 21% through January 2021
- Spain worsened to be down 34.6% in January 2021 after seeing a spike in Coronavirus infections in late 2020 that hampered output
- France and Italy are down 24% and 27.5% respectively through January 2021
- In the Asia Pacific region, nations have generally fared better
- Australia is down 11.1% while Japan was slightly better at 9.3% through February 2021
- New Zealand is down 20.9% through February 2021
- Meanwhile, South Korea is bucking all trends and is up 7% through January 2021
Car Imports into Australia
- Car Imports dropped in January 2021, recording a figure of $2.881 billion according to latest ABS figures
- This represents an increase of $0.17 billion (+6.27%) compared to January 2020
- The rolling 12 month change shows imports are down $3.5 billion in January 2021
- Stock supply entering Australia seems to be below pre-COVID norms but above levels seen across 2020
- Greater stock availability helped new car sales increase 5% in February 2021, see our latest VFACTS report for insights
International Car Exports
The latest government figures show the following 12 month rolling changes in car export volume from the large car manufacturing nations:
- South Korea is down 18% through January 2021
- Japan is down 23% through January 2021
- The United Kingdom is down 26% through January 2021
- Germany is down 26% through February 2021
- The United States ended 2020 down 29%
With car production and exports from international markets still significantly low, imports into Australia are likely to remain volatile for sometime.
New car sales in large international markets are also still low and with Australia further down the priority chain for car manufacturers, it’s likely that new car supply into Australia will struggle for the next few months.
By Tanim Ahmed, Head of Product at Datium Insights
Tanim is a Macquarie University alumni with degrees in Finance and Economics. He has spent a decade in the Leasing and Finance industry, specializing in Residual Value risk.
Please contact Datium Insights for further analytical support and advisory services.
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Global Car Production, Sales and Exports March 2021
