U.S. auto sales ran at a faster pace in November for the first month this year without government stimulus, signaling that buyers are returning to showrooms as the economy stabilizes.
General Motors Co., Toyota Motor Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Group LLC all posted results that beat analysts’ estimates. The seasonally adjusted sales rate was 10.93 million vehicles, up from 10.41 million a year earlier, industry researcher Autodata Corp. said.
The results buttressed automakers’ belief that a slow recovery is under way after deliveries were ravaged by the deepest recession since the Great Depression and bankruptcies for GM and Chrysler. An increase in the sales pace in August was driven by the government’s “cash for clunkers” incentives.
“The industry is starting to make some strides,” said Michael Robinet, analyst with CSM Worldwide Inc. in Northville, Michigan. Automakers are at a “turning point” as they focus on ensuring profitable sales, not just higher volumes, he said.
November’s sales pace also exceeded the average estimate of 10.5 million, based on 7 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
Industry sales totaled 746,928 in November, compared with 746,789 a year earlier, according to Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey- based Autodata. Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, reported a 2.6 percent increase, while deliveries for Ford were little changed and Detroit-based GM and Chrysler said sales fell.
‘We’re Excited’
“We’re excited to see a year-to-year increase without clunkers for the first time this year,” Bob Carter, group vice president of Toyota’s U.S. sales unit, said in a conference call with reporters.
Manufacturers, suppliers and dealers use the sales rate to compare monthly totals by accounting for seasonal patterns. U.S. sales were 13.2 million in 2008, after averaging 16.8 million this decade through 2007. August’s 14.09 million was 2009’s highest rate, and the lowest was February’s 9.11 million.
“We saw a significant uptick in traffic, but not to the levels of the robust years of the past,” Ken Czubay, Ford’s U.S. sales chief, said today on a conference call. “With the cloud over our heads of unemployment and consumer confidence not completely clear, we’ll have guarded optimism for December.”
U.S. incentives on all brands of autos fell to $2,694 in November from $2,892 the year-earlier month as the return of buyers reduced the need for discounts, according to Autodata. Incentives dropped to $3,437 on domestic autos and slid to $1,798 on Asian brands.
Ford Production
Ford said first-quarter North American production will increase 58 percent from a year earlier to 550,000 vehicles.
Analysts’ estimates are adjusted for last month having 23 sales days, 2 fewer than in November 2008. Some automakers report adjusted figures, which would be about 8 percentage points higher than the unadjusted numbers used by Bloomberg.
GM, the biggest U.S. automaker, had a 6.3 percent gain on that basis, beating the 5.8 percent average estimate of 5 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. all exceeded the adjusted estimates.
U.S. sales for GM slid 2.2 percent to 151,427, and Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford was little changed at 123,167, according to the automakers. Auburn Hills, Michigan-based Chrysler said sales declined 25 percent to 63,560 vehicles, while Toyota City, Japan-based Toyota reported 133,700 U.S. deliveries.
Unit Sales
Nissan, based in Yokohama, Japan, said sales rose 21 percent to 56,288. Tokyo-based Honda posted a 2.9 percent decrease to 74,003.
GM, Ford and Toyota benefited from a surge in demand for cars over trucks and sport-utility vehicles. Sales rose 13 percent for GM’s Buick, Cadillac and Chevrolet, the car brands it’s keeping in the U.S. as it disposes of Pontiac, Saturn and Saab. GM also is selling the Hummer SUV unit.
Toyota’s passenger-car division rose 5.3 percent and Ford’s car sales, excluding Volvo, increased 14 percent.
Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea’s largest automaker, said sales jumped 46 percent to 28,045. U.S. sales for Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz and Smart brands rose 9.1 percent to 17,446, the Stuttgart, Germany-based company said. Munich-based Bayerische Motoren Werke AG’s brands fell 7.5 percent, dragged down by a 44 percent collapse for Mini. BMW-brand sales rose 3.2 percent.
Business Activity Climbs
Consumers may be responding to signs of an improving economy. Business activity unexpectedly accelerated in November as orders climbed, the Institute for Supply Management said yesterday. Existing-home sales increased in October for the ninth straight month, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Automakers were buoyed by the comparison with November 2008, when the sales rate was the lowest last year. During that month, U.S. companies cut 533,000 jobs, and GM and Chrysler said they would run short of cash without government aid.
GM and Chrysler also are moving farther from their bankruptcy exits in July and June.
“The results are a positive indication that the improvement in auto sales that we began to see following the completion of ‘cash for clunkers’ appears sustainable over the near term,” Brett Hoselton, a KeyBanc Capital Markets analyst in Cleveland, wrote in a note today.
December 6th, 2009 at 5:42 pm
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