North America Q4 Output Gets Another Boost

Thanks to another increase in fourth-quarter production plans, North American auto makers now are set to close the books on 2012 with 15,737,000 vehicle builds, up 16.8% from the 13,471,500 units turned out in 2011.

It would be the industry’s strongest year since 2006, when output reached 15,877,161.

The auto makers’ latest round of revisions sees Q4 planned production in the U.S., Canada and Mexico rising for the second month in a row, this time by 48,200 vehicles.

In a flip-flop from a month ago, the new production gains favor trucks over cars by a margin of more than 3:1. Most of the increase comes in November, when plants are expected to build 24,200 more vehicles, including 17,600 additional trucks, than had been booked for the month in October.

December is slated for an additional 14,600 units of assembly, including 11,100 trucks, before the year-end vacation shutdowns begin on Dec. 23. All of that comes on top of an estimated October overbuild totaling 9,400 units, 88% of which were trucks.

Led by a 14,800-unit increase by Toyota, the truck production gains are widespread, encompassing nearly all manufacturers except Nissan, Ford and Kia, as well as dedicated medium- and heavy-duty truck makers in Mexico.

Toyota, despite an estimated 700-unit October underbuild, also leads the pack with an overall Q4 increase of 14,100 units, besting Chrysler’s 12,300 and Hyundai’s 10,200.

General Motors Q4 output plans increase by 9,000 units, with most of that in October. Although Ford’s volume for the quarter remains nearly unchanged from the plan put in place two months ago, some production of both cars and trucks has been pushed from October into November and December.

The latest changes give the Detroit Three output of 8,315,600 cars and trucks in 2012, up 8% from 7,700,800 in 2011. Transplant assemblies are expected to reach 7,053,500 units this year, up 29.8% from 2011’s natural-disaster-curtailed total of 5,434,000.

Production of 367,900 units by the dedicated medium- and heavy-duty truck makers shows a 9.3% gain from the 335,700 built last year.

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