As the above chart shows, India’s auto sales have now fallen for the last 6 months versus the previous year. According to India’s auto association, this has never happened before (sales data was first collected in March 1998). This is another symptom of India’s slowing GDP growth, with the government estimating Q1’s level at just […]
Chemicals and the Economy
Extra selling days support EU April auto sales
Good news about EU auto sales is always welcome, especially when it comes after 17 months of declining sales. Thus the blog is happy to note that April’s sales rose 1.7% versus 2012. Equally, however, it has to report the commentary of Europe’s auto association (ACEA): “The region counted on average two more working days […]
US auto sales growth declines for 5th successive month
Blog readers read it here first. Last month the blog did some simple sums to show that US auto sales were unlikely to continue to grow at the 8.6% reported rate of Q1. The reason was that sales had been increased by the need to replace the 250k autos destroyed during Hurricane Sandy in November. […]
India’s auto sales enter the New Normal
India is the 3rd largest Asian auto market after China and Japan, and a year ago its automobile association was confidently forecasting annual demand growth of 10%-12%. Instead, sales have fallen 7% (India uses an April-March year) – the first time annual sales have fallen for a decade. As Reuters notes: “Carmakers in India, two […]
Low-cost Dacia boosts sales 15%, as EU market declines 10%
One volume car manufacturer in Europe achieved a 15% volume increase in Q1 with one of its major brands. The same brand is also achieving margins of around 9%. Who was it? Regular blog readers will know the answer. Renault’s low-cost Dacia was the only major brand to increase Q1 sales apart from Mercedes – […]
Licence plate trading drives Q1 jump in China’s auto sales
Something very strange happened in China’s auto market during Q1. As the chart shows, sales (red square) rocketed 20% in January/February versus 2012 (green line), before cooling to 15% growth in March. Neither government nor the auto industry expects this pace to continue: • Government forecasts are for 8% overall growth this year • Industry […]
US auto sales growth slows as Hurricane Sandy impact ends
250,500 US autos were destroyed during Hurricane Sandy last November, according to official data from the National Insurance Crime Bureau. Their replacement was clearly going to have a big impact on auto sales for the following months. Yet strangely, the blog has seen no discussion of this impact. So it has made its own calculations […]
Auto sales start to plateau globally
Autos are the largest manufacturing business in the world, and are also the largest single source of demand for chemicals and plastics. So developments in the major markets are key to future economic growth and demand patterns. The chart summarises developments since 2008 in the 7 major markets, which account for 85% of global volume, […]
EU auto sales continue their decline
There really isn’t very much to say about the latest EU auto sales data. They were simply awful. As the chart shows, 2013 volumes (red square) are well below 2012 levels (green line). Less than 800k cars were sold in the 2 months combined, down 10%. Some major markets have now been falling for a […]
US auto sales growth slips as Hurricane Sandy impact ends
CNN captured the world’s imagination when launching 24/7 television coverage of the first Gulf War in 1991. For the first time in history, viewers were able to see what happening as it happened. And CNN used expert and experienced commentators to make sense of the pictures. Some of the major media still maintain these high […]
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