More signs of a steadying in some major economies, or just exhausted consumers running out of patience?
Car sales fell in the US and Japan in March, but were up in Germany as a tax carrot prompted a surge in car sales, but a surprise fall in other retail sales, thereby negating its impact on the broader German economy.
French car sales rose, thanks to incentives, Canadian car sales fell 15%, Fiat’s car sales rose, as did sales at Volkswagen and Peugeot-Citroen.
In Australia, figures later today will show a 20% fall in March, but Holden is cutting its Adelaide car plant back to one shift a day for the rest of the year as sales of the Commodore fall continue dropping: down 11% last month.
Overall, apart from Japan, it seems to have been a better month for the global industry than January or February were, leading some analysts to suggest a bottom was being reached.
The news from the US and Europe helped send markets higher yesterday ahead of the Group of 20 leaders meeting overnight. The surge in shares continued with Wall Street up again strong overnight
At the same time figures on manufacturing, construction and pending new home sales in the US showed further signs of plateauing.
They were released before the car companies reported on the March sales. Last night a rise in orders also helped buoy markets in the US, despite a record surge in people on unemployment benefits.
In the US the fall in car sales was well over 30% with all companies down sharply on a year ago, but most saying they did better than earlier in the year. (Source)
Sales from General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, Honda and Nissan all fell at least 36% from year ago levels. But all posted gains from January and February.
GM reported that sales fell 45% from March, 2008, with sales made by the unwanted brands, Saturn, Saab and Hummer – slumping far more sharply than core GM brands. Hummer sales for instance fell 76%. That was one sale every four days in the month.
Ford sales fell 41% and it was across the board. Sales of Sports Utility Vehicles, the huge gas guzzlers fell a massive 73% plunge in the month as Americans continued to lose their interest in this type of car. That’s despite lower fuel prices than a year ago.
Chrysler’s sales fell 39% from a year ago, but that was better than in February when the fall was over 50%. It sold more than 100,000 vehicles in a month for the first time in six months.
Toyota sales fell 39%, Honda 36% and Nissan’s sales fell 38%. Daimler said US sales for its Mercedes-Benz and smart micro-cars fell a combined 23% last month, while sales of BMW cars (including the Mini) fell 22.9%. Hyundai sales fell 4.8% after rising in January and February on the back of a marketing ploy that guarantees to take back the car if the buyer is made unemployed within a year of purchase. GM and Ford revealed rival plans on Monday.
Ford estimates that about 800,000 vehicles were sold industrywide in the US during March, about a 41% drop from year ago levels, but up 16% from February and 22% from January’s low point.
Final figures will be out tomorrow, but some analysts cautioned against greeting the better than forecast figures as a sign the slump had stopped. Car sales in March always spike higher than in January and February because of the end of the northern winter and the start of Spring.
In Japan car sales in March fell 32% to the lowest level in 35 years as the recession crimps demand.
Vehicle sales, excluding minicars, fell to 323,063 vehicles in March; including minicars, sales fell 25% to 546,098 vehicles last month
The Japan Automobile Dealers Association said Toyota sold 135,700 vehicles excluding its Lexus-brand cars, down 32% while sales at Nissan, the country’s third-biggest, fell 34%.
For the financial year ended March 31 (Tuesday), industrywide sales including minicars dropped 12%, to 4.7 million, the lowest figure since 1977.
The Association has estimated vehicle sales this financial year could fall further, to 4.3 million units.
Germans car sales are rising sharply because of the ‘scrapping bonus of 2,500 euros for models nine years or older. But it’s having a nasty impact on the rest of retailing.
Germans are now spending less on food and electronics but more on cars – that’s an outcome that has surprised the government and the car industry which had claimed it wouldn’t happen.
German retail sales (Europe’s largest economy) fell 0.2% in February from January (a rise of 0.3% had been forecast).(Source,)
Car sales rose nearly 12%, and sales of food and electronics fell, according to the figures from the German government’s statistics office.
The raw figures were distorted by February last year having one extra trading day. Over January and February of this year, sales were 3.3% down on the same months of 2008.
The government at first earmarked 1.5 billion euros for the scrapping scheme. That was enough to subsidise the scrapping of 600,000 cars.
But the scheme has proved so popular the government had been forced to leave it running until the end of 2009, without a cap.
An extra 228,000 cars were sold in February and figures quoted in the German media suggest over 800,000 extra cars will be sold in the three months to March.
In the US Honda has cut its production outlook by a further 62,000 a
