Q1 Output Slate Holds Steady
Q1 North American output plan holds steady at 4.4 million-plus, despite having more trucks and fewer cars.
The latest round of automaker production scheduling meetings has netted little in the way of change to the conservative January-March output slate put in place a month ago, with production planners adding just 8,700 units.
Currently there are 4,439,200 cars and trucks booked for completion in the first quarter, up from the previously planned 4,430,500 units and 1.2% ahead of like-2015’s 4,387,600 assemblies.
Underlying that is the fact car production has been cut by 15,700 units, a net with 18,700-unit reduction at Fiat Chrysler, Ford and Nissan being offset my modest increases among other transplant automakers.
On the other hand, in response to the public’s seemingly insatiable appetite for light trucks, manufacturers have upped the Q1 truck build, including medium- and heavy-duty models, by 24,400 units, all but 500 of them in January, including 7,600 units pulled forward from March.
FCA accounts for the single biggest boost in truck production, 18,000 units for the quarter, with General Motors and Toyota bumping schedules up by 1,500 and 2,000 units, respectively.
Dedicated medium- and heavy-duty truck makers show a net increase of just 900 vehicles for the quarter thanks in part to some uncertainty in the economic output and to freight lines ordering fewer trucks as they struggle to fill driver ranks for the vehicles already in their fleets.
FCA, Ford and GM, operating at a combined 99.7% of prior-year’s pace, accounted for 50.5% of Q1 output, down from 51.3% in like-2015.
Transplants, with output running at 103.5% of year-ago, account for 47.4% of January-March assemblies as against 46.3% last year, while the dedicated medium- and heavy-truck makers are operating at just 87.3% of Q1 2015 volume and account for 2.1% of industry production, down from 2.5%
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