Steel Markets
June 2, 2020
Auto Sales Pick Up as Automotive Operations Restart
Written by Sandy Williams
Auto sales in May are expected to be up 49 percent from April as the economy starts to reopen, says Cox Automotive. Sales are forecast to finish the year around 11.4 million vehicles, better than last month’s annual rate of 8.6 million, but far below the 17.4 million level seen in 2019, said Cox.
“Recent trends suggest daily sales are showing significant gains over March and April’s collapse. Data reveals the market hit a bottom around the first of April, and since then has been making a slow but steady recovery,” said Charlie Chesbrough, senior economist at Cox Automotive The opening of dealerships, and whole states, over the last few weeks is greatly contributing to the upward sales trend. The key question for the market going forward is whether these modest but steady sales gains will continue into June or does the sales recovery stagnate.”
