Steel Markets
October 19, 2014
US Vehicle Sales & NAFTA Vehicle Production
Written by Peter Wright
Light vehicle sales in the US declined in September to 16.4 million units from the blistering 17.5 million rate in August, both on a seasonally adjusted annualized basis. The spread between light trucks and autos increased to one million units in favor of light trucks. The third quarter pace was Ta very strong 16.8 million units.
Sales declined very little month / month for Ford and General Motors and improved for Chrysler. As a result, the U.S. brand market share increased from 44 percent to 46 percent. Month / month sales declined for Nissan, Honda and Toyota and their total market share declined from 35 percent to 31 percent. Toyota’s sales were down year over year. In the third quarter the market share of imports declined to 21 percent from 22 percent in Q2. Moody’s Analytics expects vehicle sales to remain well above 16 million units in the near term and approach near 17 million units in 2015.
