EU new car sales up again in February, ACEA says

In February 2023, new vehicle registrations grew by 11.5% when compared with figures from the corresponding month the year before, reaching a total of 802,763 units, the European Automotive Manufacturers Association (ACEA) said on Tuesday March 21.
The association added that the increase should be considered in light of a low base comparison figure due to the semiconductor shortage crisis at the start of 2022.

Strong growth was reported in all EU automotive markets, with Spain showing the strongest gains at 19.2%. Italy also performed particularly positively with a 17.4% rise in new registrations.

New car sales saw double-digit increases in both January and February, with almost 1.6 million new cars registered in that two-month period, up a total of 11.4% from figures collected in January and February of 2022.

And, in the first two months of the year, Spain’s new car sales rose by 32.1% year on year, Italy’s by 18.2% and France’s by 9.1%. However, car registrations in Germany remained relatively flat during the same two-month period, at 0.2%.

However, despite the increases in new car sales, recent upward movement in flat steel prices have mainly been achieved due to limited supply resulting from cuts to production late last year, rather than a real steel demand rebound, Fastmarkets heard.

According to regional steel association Eurofer, the automotive sector consumed around 40% of EU strip mill products and 2.9% of quarto plate products on average in 2021, so the automotive sector is a major end-user for flat steel markets.

Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Northern Europe at €845.63 ($902) per tonne on Tuesday March 21, up €0.63 per tonne from €845 per tonne the day before, and up €73.37 per tonne month on month.

Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel hot-dipped galvanized coil domestic, exw Northern Europe was €950-970 per tonne on Wednesday March 15, up by €20-30 per tonne from €930-940 per tonne a week earlier, and up €50-70 per tonne month on month.

In January, ACEA director general Sigrid de Vries said the automotive market would “start embarking on a recovery process in 2023.”

“We expect around 9.8 million new cars to be sold across the region this year, up 5% from 2022. However, this remains 25% below the 2019 pre-crisis levels, showing that we are still in a fragile situation,” she added.

Published by: Holly Chant