North America Light-Vehicle Production Down 4.4% in February
Big gains in Mexico output were not enough to outweigh losses in the U.S. and Canada.
March 17, 2017
February North America light-vehicle production fell 4.4% behind year-ago with 1,457,166 units. Small cars (2.4%), CUVs (5.0%) and pickups (0.4%) were the only segments to witness growth.
However, production in Mexico soared 14.0% above year-ago to 308,400 light vehicles. FCA increased production 69.7% to 44,896, helped by the addition of the Jeep Compass at the Toluca plant. Nissan, the biggest volume producer in Mexico, improved 3.3% over like-2016 to 73,808 units.
It was a slow month in Canada, with almost every manufacturer falling behind year-ago’s production. The one exception was Multimatic, building the innovative carbon-fiber body Ford GT in Markham, ON. Five of the high-priced sports cars rolled off the line in February.
Overall output sank 12.5% in Canada to 184,463 units. GM’s total fell 22.9% to 37,901, and FCA production was down 13.1% to 44,641 builds.
U.S. production dropped 7.5% below year-ago to 964,303 LVs, while inventory was at a record high 4.096 million units.
Much of the loss came from the car total, which fell 19.5% to 280,612. Subaru was the only car manufacturer to improve over like-2016, rising 10.5% to 14,762 with the addition of the Impreza in Lafayette, IN.
Light-truck production slipped 1.6% to 683,691 units while still gaining share to 69.4% of U.S. builds, up from 64.9% in like-2016.
For the first two months of 2017, U.S. production was 2.9% below year-ago with 1,878,360 LVs built.
Several automakers outpaced the region: Mazda boosted production 4.5% to 18,211, GM gained 4.8% to 300,256 and Volkswagen soared 30.6% to 62,877. Subaru output jumped 12.2% to 33,084, a best-ever February total since starting North American production in 1990.
Year-to-date, North America production was 1.4% behind like-2016 at 2,843,764 LVs.
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