Q4 NA Output Set for Strong Finish

Heading into the final quarter of the year, North American assembly plants are moving briskly to build the 4,309,600 cars and trucks slated for completion in October-December, a 5.1% gain over the 4,112,000 units built in like-2013.

At first glance, that appears to fall short of the 4,343,000 vehicles scheduled for Q4 as of early September, but the earlier plan included some 80,000 Nissan Mexico trucks that were slated for the automaker’s plants outside North America.

Thus, the industry’s current fourth-quarter plan actually represents a gain of 46,600 vehicles form an adjusted volume of 4,263,000 units.

Cars account for 56% of the increase, up 26,100 units, or 14.8%, from the prior level, with truck production up 20,500, or 8.2%.

Most of the scheduled Q4 increase stems from a whopping 58,000-unit boost at Toyota that follows an anticipated 23,600-unit hike in August-September production. Trucks account for 63% of Toyota’s Q4 increase and 56.4% of its July-September increase.

However, the latest schedule revisions exclude any forthcoming revisions from Ford, due in mid-October.

Ford already has trimmed its third-quarter plan 35,500 units, to 679,800, including 16,000 vehicles in August and an estimated 19,500 in September, with trucks accounting for 53.8% of the shortfall.

Chrysler, too, has schedule 18,000 fewer assemblies in October-December, while General Motors is adding a net 3,700 fourth-quarter units, including 7,100 trucks that are offset by 3,400 fewer cars,

At 17,352,900 units, output this year still is on track to finish in third place behind the record 17,659,700 vehicles built in 2000, topping 17.0 million for only the third time in history.

With 9,153,300 units, the Detroit Three are set to build 2.7% more vehicles than the 8,895,100 assembled the prior year, netting them a 52.6% production share this year as against 53.9% year-ago.

Transplants, with 7,846,600 units, account for 45.2% of 2014 output, compared with 44.1% in 2013, when they built 7,275,000 cars and trucks. That equals a 7.9% year-over-year gain.

Dedicated medium- and heavy-duty truck makers are slated to build 371,000 big rigs this year, an 11.3% increase from the 333,400 turned out in 2013. That give them a 2.1% output share, slightly ahead of prior-year’s 2.0%.

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