Analysis
February 22, 2021
North American Auto Assemblies Retract in January
Written by David Schollaert
Auto assemblies in North America took a step back in January after seeing a strong end to 2020. Although the U.S. market continues to rebound from the effects of the pandemic, domestic light vehicle sales fell by 3.1% in January compared to year-ago levels, according to LMC Automotive (LMCA). Canada’s light vehicle sales were down by 15.0% in January when compared to year-ago levels, while Mexico’s sales fell by 22.6% during the same period. The setback was largely due to a surge in COVID-19 cases at the beginning of the year that subdued overall automotive activity. North American production was up marginally month on month to 1.155 million units, from 1.150 million in December, but the impact of the recent microchip shortage is not yet reflected in available data.
According to LMCA, U.S. light vehicle sales dipped 3.1% in January year over year, which could be explained by one fewer selling day than in January 2020. Despite the decreases in sales across North America, all three countries posted increased selling rates when compared to month-ago levels. The U.S. was at 16.6 million units, up from 16.4 million the month prior. Canada’s selling rate accelerated to 1.75 million units, from 1.5 million during the same period. Despite Mexico’s dismal sales in January on year-on-year basis, the selling rate rose to 1.03 million units, from 913,000 in December. As a comparison, Figure 1 shows the production in North America on a rolling 12-month basis as the dark blue line and the year-over-year growth as the light blue bars.
