Entries from Chemicals & The Economy tagged with 'Ford'
US auto buyers head for fuel efficiency
Every now and then, genuinely good news comes along in terms of consumer demand. Today is one of those days. As the chart above shows, US auto sales in March (red square) were the highest monthly total since March 2007....
US auto sales continue to disappoint
One characteristic of recessions is that recovery is always 'just around the corner'. We can see this pattern in today's US auto market. Since 2009, forecasters have been convinced that sales will quickly return to Supercycle levels of 15-17 million/year....
Chrysler warns of China threat
Chrysler CEO, Sergio Marchionne, has issued a wake-up call to Western auto companies about the growth of China's exports. He warns that they "can't count on dramatic growth in Asia to drive prosperity", and suggests that China's plans to increase...
US auto sales disappoint, again
Time was when US auto sales only rarely dipped below 1.1 million/month. Since the Great Recession began, however, they have only rarely been above this level. Analysts are yet to take this change on board. So June's 1.05 million figure...
US auto buyers shift towards the New Normal
US auto sales remained stable last month. As the chart shows (red line), they were just above the 1.1 million level. Until the Crisis began in 2008, this was the minimum level for monthly sales, but now it seems to...
US consumers shift to fuel-efficient autos
After 2.5 years of 0% interest rates, $5trn of government stimulus and a payroll tax cut, the US economy is finally beginning to create jobs again. The jobless rate fell last month to 8.8%. And the wider U-6 jobless rate,...
US auto market enters the New Normal
US auto sales have slowed again. We seem certain to end 2010 at the bottom end of last year's forecasts for demand, which ranged between 11.5m - 12.5m. This seems the main conclusion from analysing November's sales figures. The blog...
US auto market remains "very fragile"
US auto sales (black line) in April showed welcome improvement versus 2009, but were still a long way short of earlier demand levels. They were up 19% versus April 2009. But even with this improvement, they were down by 24%...
Toyota's discounts drive US auto sales rise
The blog is always grateful for good news, no matter the reason. Thus it welcomes March's rise in US auto sales to 850k from February's 615k (black line). The driver for the rise was Toyota's (red line) record level of...
EU auto sales top USA and China in 2009
Almost unnoticed, the EU became the largest regional auto market last year. Thanks to the support of scrappage programmes (particularly Germany's €5bn scheme) it sold 14.4 million autos, compared to just 10.4m in the USA and 13.6m in China. W...
US auto sales in 2009 at 1982 level
US auto sales last year at 10.4 million were the worst since 1982. Even this figure was slightly artificial, due to the support provided by the $3bn 'cash for clunkers' programme in the summer. This impact can be seen in...
US auto sales enter the "new normal"
The blog is changing its US auto sales chart, now that a year has passed since volumes collapsed last October. Year-on-year % changes become meaningless as a result. Instead, it will now show monthly volumes, on a total US basis...
US auto sales continue rebound
US auto sales have not yet followed the European lead, and shown an increase versus 2008 levels. And they certainly don't match China's 17% sales increase in H1. But they were down just 11% in July. And Ford did post...
US demand bouncing along the bottom
The good news from the latest reports on US house prices and auto sales was simple - things have stopped getting worse. US house prices saw "some stabilisation in some regions" according to the S&P/Case Shiller Index for April. Whilst...
US auto sales start to bottom
The blog may be over-optimistic, but as with US house markets, it is hopeful that US auto market may have hit at least a temporary bottom. Spring should be a good period for sales, and March saw auto volumes down...
Obama gets tough on US auto industry
There had been speculation that President Obama's mid-West background might tempt him to take a soft line on the troubled automotive industry. But his comments on Thursday that there has been "a lot of mismanagement of the auto industry over...
US auto sales remain depressed
February brought no relief for the troubled US auto industry, so critical to chemical sales. Sales were down 41% versus 2008. Even more worryingly, sales over the past quarter, and last 6 months, averaged under 10 million/year. Chrysler's results also...
European auto sales slide continues
European auto sales fell 25% in January, according to JD Power. This equals an annualised rate of just 11m cars, the lowest since the early 1990's. 13.6m were sold in 2008. And although the forecaster hopes for some improvement later...
GM, Chrysler's US sales collapse
January's US auto sales figures gave no hope that demand is yet bottoming out. Volumes were down 41% versus 2008. As the chart shows, the main pain was felt by GM and Chrysler, who saw sales down 49% and 55%...
European auto sales to fall 16% in 2009
European auto sales fell 8.4% in 2008, versus 2007. Sales of 13.56m autos were just ahead of the USA's 13.2m. European volumes continue on a worsening trend, with December down 19% versus last year: • Spanish sales were down...
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