Steel Markets
January 23, 2014
NAFTA Vehicle Production through December
Written by Peter Wright
Light vehicle production in NAFTA in 2013 totaled, 16,141,347 units, the best year since 2002 and an increase of 6.0 percent on 2012 (Source Wards Automotive.). In 3 months through December production was up by 6.9 percent year over year. Light trucks which include crossovers are surging faster than cars, the year over year growth rates were 11.8 percent and 1.0 percent respectively.
Total production in 2013 breaks down to 7,133,422 and 9,007,925 for cars and light trucks respectively. In three months through December, growth rates of total light vehicles year over year were, US 7.0 percent, Canada 4.4 percent Mexico negative 3.5 percent. The US continues to be the success story of NAFTA auto production (Figure 1), though it must be said that the US had the more ground to make up from the recession. More good news for US light vehicle production, according to AMM, is that through August capital expenditure announcements were US $3.902 billion, Mexico $1.020 billion and Canada $0.250 billion. The growth of medium and heavy truck production has stalled overall and had negative growth of 3.8 percent in NAFTA as a whole in Q4 (Figure 2).
