Steel Markets
January 22, 2015
NAFTA Auto Production & US Sales for December 2014
Written by Peter Wright
December was another strong month for light vehicle sales at 16.9 million units and following the very strong November result of 17.2 million units (annualized). This was the second best result since August. In 2014 as a whole sales were 16.5 million units, up from 15.6 million in 2013 and the best sales result since 2006.
Light trucks increased faster than automobiles in November but gave back some of that differential in December when the LT segment was down by 200,000 units, twice the decline experienced by automobiles. Light truck sales declined from 9.0 to 8.8 million units as cars declined from 8.2 to 8.1 million. For all of 2014 the mix was 52 percent LT and 48 percent cars. Light trucks includes crossovers. Chrysler and Nissan had the best sales increase in 2014, both up by double digits, Ford’s sales declined slightly in 2014 as a result of the Dearborn shut down to re-tool the F150.
