DETROIT – U.S. gross sales of Ford Motor’s new autos final month declined by 33.1% from a 12 months earlier as a result of an ongoing international scarcity of semiconductor chips that is wreaking havoc on the automotive business, the corporate stated Thursday.
The Detroit automaker’s gross sales capped off a dismal month of U.S. auto gross sales in August, which plummeted to an adjusted promoting charge of 13.09 million autos. That is the worst tempo since June 2020 and down from this 12 months’s peak of 18.5 million in April, in keeping with auto knowledge agency Motor Intelligence.
Analysts anticipated the August promoting tempo to be between 13.1 million and 14.four million autos, with J.D. Energy and LMC Automotive forecasting total gross sales to say no by 13.7% in contrast with August 2020.
The gross sales tempo for any given month measures what number of automobiles the business would promote for the 12 months if it offered the identical quantity each month. It is a principal barometer of the business’s well being and demand.
August is traditionally one of many increased auto gross sales months of the 12 months, however the chip scarcity has brought about car stock ranges to plummet to report lows and pricing of recent automobiles and vans to skyrocket.
The Ford firm brand is displayed on an indication outdoors of the Chicago Meeting Plant on February 03, 2021 in Chicago, Illinois.
Scott Olson | Getty Photographs
Sellers solely have about 942,000 autos in stock for retail sale, in contrast with roughly Three million earlier than the coronavirus pandemic two years in the past, in keeping with Thomas King, president of the information and analytics division at J.D. Energy.
“Though stock is arriving at sellers every day, it’s merely changing the autos being offered, stopping sellers from rising inventories to a degree essential to assist the next gross sales tempo,” King stated.
Whereas most main U.S. automakers have switched to quarterly gross sales reporting, a number of others that also report month-to-month gross sales resembling Honda and Subaru additionally reported double-digit losses in August. Toyota, Volvo, Hyundai and Kia reported slight gross sales will increase or losses in contrast with a 12 months in the past.
Gross sales of almost each car in Ford’s lineup have been down final month in contrast with final 12 months, with incremental gross sales good points from some new autos resembling its Bronco SUVs. Most notably, Ford’s bestselling F-Sequence pickups declined by 22.5%.
Ford’s whole gross sales final month topped 124,176 autos. Truck gross sales have been down by almost 30%, whereas SUVs have been off by 25.3% and automotive gross sales fell by 86% from August 2020.
A silver lining for Ford final month was that its retail gross sales have been up by 6.5% in contrast with July however nonetheless off by 33% from August 2020, in keeping with Andrew Frick, vp, Ford Gross sales U.S. and Canada.
Ford’s gross sales come a day after the automaker confirmed it was as soon as once more chopping manufacturing of its F-150 pickup truck and different extremely worthwhile autos as a result of ongoing international scarcity of semiconductor chips.
The origin of the scarcity dates to early final 12 months when Covid brought about rolling shutdowns of auto meeting crops. Because the amenities closed, the wafer and chip suppliers diverted the components to different sectors resembling shopper electronics, which weren’t anticipated to be as damage by stay-at-home orders.
The issue is predicted to price the worldwide automotive business $110 billion in income in 2021, in keeping with consulting agency AlixPartners.
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