Steel Markets

Light-Vehicle Sales Show Strength in April

Written by Laura Miller

May 23, 2023

April was a strong month for sales of light vehicles in the US, with monthly sales pushing the seasonally adjusted annual rate to 15.9 million, according to figures from the Bureau of Economy Analysis (BEA).

05.23.23 light vehicle sales 1

Light-vehicle sales totaled 1.347 million units in April, according to the BEA. This was a 1.5% decline from the month prior but a 9.0% rise from April 2022.

The year-on-year gain was “all the more impressive by the fact that April 2023 had one fewer selling day than April 2022,” LMC Automotive said in a news release commenting on preliminary April estimates.

The April SAAR for auto sales was 3.28 million – the highest rate seen since July 2021. The light-trucks SAAR of 12.634 million was just slightly behind January’s rate of 12.796 million.

LMC noted that “the market appears to be finally moving beyond supply chain woes.” With customers waiting longer to purchase vehicles, OEMs are learning the benefits of tighter inventories, the forecasting agency said.

“In some ways the market is returning to something approaching normal,” LMC added.

By Laura Miller, laura@steelmarketupdate.com

Laura Miller

Laura Miller is a reporter and editor for Steel Market Update. Since 2007, she has held various editorial and marketing positions with steel industry publications, associations, and mills. In 2021, after a five-year hiatus working across other industries, she returned to steel trade journalism, joining SMU in 2022. She is a member of the Association of Women in the Metal Industries and a past-president of the AWMI Pittsburgh Chapter. She holds a BA in Latin American Studies from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. She can be reached at laura@steelmarketupdate.com or 724-759-7869.

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