Canada’s January light vehicle sales fall 17.4% amid pandemic lockdowns

Stefan Baumgarten

05-Feb-2021

TORONTO (ICIS)–Canadian sales of new light vehicles are estimated to have fallen by 17.4% year on year in January, to 90,890 units, according to the latest data by DesRosiers Automotive Consultants (DAC) on Friday.

Expressed as a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR), sales were 1.66m, down 340,000 units from the January 2020 SAAR.

January’s sales decline was no surprise, given the lockdowns across Canada to contain the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, said DAC managing partner Andrew King.

Also, the auto industry was still working through supply chain disruptions, King said.

An estimated 84.6% of January’s sales were for light trucks, with cars accounting for the remainder.

The SUV and pick-up truck sector continued to gain market share, King said.

The automotive industry is a major global consumer of petrochemicals, which make up more than one-third of the raw material cost of an average vehicle.

Several chemicals have a significant percentage of their demand tied to the global auto industry. These include nylon resins, styrene butadiene rubber (SBR), polypropylene (PP), acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS), polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), and polycarbonate (PC).

Please visit the ICIS coronavirus topic page for analysis of the impact on chemical markets and links to latest news, and click here for ICIS’ automotive topic page

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