Q3 Output Still a Record

In the latest round of production scheduling meetings, North American automakers have opted to pare the industry’s third-quarter slate by a net 50,300 vehicles, but the July-September plan remains at an all-time high for this time of year.

Car plants are most-affected by the third-quarter cuts, especially the Mexico facilities of Nissan and Volkswagen.

Industry plans now call for 4,524,500 cars to be built in the quarter, down 56,100 units compared with output plans a month ago. That cut is fueled primarily by reductions of 20,500 vehicles at Nissan Mexico and 22,500 at VW operations in Puebla, although output has been trimmed elsewhere as well.

Offsetting the car-production cuts to a small degree is a 5,800-unit increase in planned truck assemblies.

Most of truck hike is the result from a 6,500-unit gain among dedicated medium- and heavy-duty truck makers, a 3,000-unit boost at FCA and smaller increases at several other producers, with some of that countered by cuts among others.

Still, a modest 9,600-unit increase in estimated second-quarter output helps keep the industry’s January-September assembly juggernaut on track towards a second-best tally of 13,545,413 cars and trucks.

That is less than 49,000 units off the period’s all-time high of 13,593,591 assemblies achieved in 2000 and more than 457,000-units ahead of like-2014’s fourth-place 13,087,900 completions.

Operating at 100.5% of prior-year output, the FCA, Ford, GM troika accounts for 51.1% of the industry’s January-September output, down from 52.9% a year ago.

Transplants, with a 6.8% year-over-year increase, account for 46.3% of production in the 9-month period vs. 44.9% in like-2014, while the dedicated medium and heavy truck makers, running 9.7% ahead, hold a 2.4% production share, up from 2.2% a year earlier.   

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