Q2 Output Plan Hiked

The auto industry’s revised second-quarter production plans will see North American assembly plant workers moving a bit faster than was anticipated a month ago, after 21,100 cars and 70,200 trucks were added to slate.

At an average rate of 74,508 daily, plants in the Canada, Mexico and the U.S. now are targeting assembly of 4,768,500 vehicles in April-June, up 2% from the 74,508 daily builds set in place a month ago when the industry initial Q2 slated was released.

Although the output pace still lags the 76,252 units turned out daily in like-2015, three additional work days this year mean total volume for the quarter will best prior year’s 4,651,400 completions by 117,100 vehicles.

Much of the second-quarter gain is due to increased output of Ford and Kia trucks, up a combined 60,400 units, accounting for 86% of the Q2 truck production increase. The remainder of the gain is spread among BMW, Fiat Chrysler, General Motors, Honda, Mercedes, Subaru and Toyota.

Eight manufacturers have increased second-quarter car output, with Honda, FCA and Toyota accounting for 11,500 units, or 54.5% of the industry gain.

What’s more, strong demand already prompted automakers to bolster the first-quarter tally that now is expected to close at 4,618,100 units, a whopping 155,600-vehicle overbuild, virtually all of it coming in February and March.

FCA, Ford, Honda, Kia and Nissan account for 79.1% of the additional Q1 volume that includes 48,300 more cars and 107,300 additional trucks.

Thanks to the quarterly increases, North American vehicle output in the first half of the year now is set to reach 9,386,600 units, up 3.8% from the 9,040,100 completions recorded in like-2015.

The first-half gain is due entirely to a 6.9% increase in truck production, to 5,746,600 units. On the other hand, car assemblies totaling 3,639,900 still lag those of the prior year by 0.6%.

FCA, Ford and GM hold a 51.6% of January-June output share, slightly ahead of year-ago’s 51.4%, with combined output up 4.1%.

A 4.9% year-over-year gain nets the transplants a 46.5% this year as against 2015’s 46.2%.

Dedicated medium- and heavy-duty truck makers, operating at only 78.9% of their year-earlier pace, account for 1.9% of the 2016 tally, down from 2.4% year-ago.

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