Slowdown signs – Car sales dip in US, EU and Australia – 16 Feb 2009
Planning to buy a CAR?… let’s find out what is happening around the world of automobiles and it’s tsumani big wave about to hit us soon….
It is reported that the credit crunch and global recession continues to destroy demand for cars in the US, Europe and Australia. German car sales, registrations and exports all fell by 14% or more in January 2009, while Australian car sales fell by more than 18% in January 2009.
US car sales fell by 38% in January 2009, worse than expected and even worse than the terrible 36% plunge in December. Chinese sales are falling, 2008 sales rose 6.7% on 2007 when they jumped by more than 21%. They were supposed to hit an annual 10 million by the end of last year, but instead 9.5 million were sold.
Figures overnight from the US confirm a further slump in car sales last month, with the annual rate put at 9.8 million units, the lowest since 1963. The news from GM for January was terrible. Sales were down by 49%, while Ford saw a 40% plunge. Toyota was down 34%, Honda, 28%. Nissan was off 30%. But the worst was Chrysler with sales off a huge 55%.
All this means that for those getting bullish about steel, coal, iron ore and the like, think again. With construction down, and cars in a big mess, there’s no sign of any concerted demand for steel or its raw materials. _
THIS ILLUSTRATES THE SERIOUSNESS OF THE ECONOMY EVERYONE WILL SUFFER AROUND THE WORLD
now you know why car companies are losing money or close to it
Nissan has announced plans to cut its Sunderland workforce by 1,200. Thousands of unsold cars are stored around the factory's test track
Honda is halting production at its Swindon plant in April and May, extending the two-month closure announced before Christmas to four months
Honda and Japanese rival Toyota are both cutting production in Japan and elsewhere. Hondas await export at a pier in Tokyo
Earlier this week Jaguar Land Rover said 450 British jobs would go
The open car storage areas in Corby , Northamptonshire, are reaching full capacity
Imported cars stored at Sheerness open storage area awaiting delivery to dealers
Newly imported cars fill the 150-acre site at the Toyota distribution centre in Long Beach , California
Stocks of Ford trucks in Detroit , Michigan
New cars jam the dockside in the port of Valencia in Spain
Peugeot cars await shipment to Italian dealers at the port of Civitavecchia
Unsold cars at Avonmouth Docks near Bristol
With many manufacturers on extended Christmas shutdown, the number of cars rolling off production lines in December fell 47.5% to just 53,823
Thousands of new cars are stored on the runway at the disused Upper Heyford airbase near Bicester, Oxfordshire, on December 18, 2008
Just look at the cars at the port, its fill to it's capacity
Sales of new cars in the UK have slumped to a 12-year-low and production of cars at Honda in Swindon has been halted for a unprecedented four-month period because of the collapse in global sales and represents the longest continuous halt in production at any UK car plant.
The announcement comes on a day when the EU’s Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen warned the outlook for the European car industry was ‘brutal’ and predicted not all European manufacturers would survive the economic downturn.
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