Job shops serving automotive customers are finding that pent-up demand and improved vehicle availability are overcoming the headwinds caused by high interest rates and stagnant GDP performance. PHOTO courtesy Cavalier Tool.
Job shops serving the automotive market have now been dealing with a market that’s enjoyed 12 consecutive months of sales increases compared to the previous year.
“The last time we could say this was November 2015 – which marked the last month in a remarkable 32 month run of year-over-year sales increases,” commented Desrosiers Automotive Consultants about the market sales milestone.
Sales for reporting manufacturers in October as estimated by DAC came in at 145,957 units, up a robust 20.0% from the same month in 2022.
“The market has been on a tear the last 3 months with gains close to 20% each month. Clearly pent-up demand and improved vehicle availability are overcoming the headwinds caused by high interest rates and stagnant GDP performance,” said Andrew King, Managing Partner of DAC. The seasonally adjusted annual rate for the month came in at 1.79 million – the strongest since January.
“Tempering our joy somewhat is the fact that October 2022 was a very weak comparable – indeed the worst October since 2009. Moreover, last month’s performance remains below pre-pandemic levels – that fact that October 2019 saw sales of close to 160,000 units provides an indication that there is still a way to go. Nevertheless, we’ve now had 12 months of gains,” DAC Consultants stated in its newsletter.
DAC has a detailed market forecast by segment, region, and ICE/ZEV available. For more information and pricing contact Daniel Azarov at [email protected].
