Steel Markets
September 17, 2013
NAFTA Automotive Production
Written by Peter Wright
NAFTA Automotive production in August rebounded to 1.436 million units after the summer shut down. The annual rate in August was 17.243 million units. On a rolling 12 month basis production was 15.719 million units, up 5.9 percent from the 12 months through August a year ago. Growth has been slowing as production approached then equaled the pre-recession level of 2004 through 2006 (Figure 1).
Production share of the three NAFTA members has been changing for 2 ½ years. The US share has been trending up, Canada has been trending down and Mexico has been erratically flat (Figure 2). The Detroit big 3 production share in August 2013 was 52.6 percent, the same as in August 2012.
