New passenger car registrations in the European Union fell 11.2% year on year in May to 791,546 units, bringing the total sales for the January-May period to 3.7 million units, down 13.7% year on year, data from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association showed June 16.
This was the tenth consecutive month of decline, with all four largest markets, Germany, France, Italy and Spain, seeing double-digit losses. However, the May volume was up 15.6% from April’s three-month low, the data showed.
In May, the largest EU car market Germany saw new car registrations dropping 10.2% year on year to 207,199 units, although 14.9% higher than the previous month.
In the second-largest market France, sales for the month dropped 10.1% on the year, but rose 16.6% on the month to 126,809 units.
Similarly, car sales in Italy dropped 15% on the year to 121,299 units, but rose 24.6% from April to the highest level since June 2021.
In Spain, 84,977 units were sold in May, falling 10.9% on the year, but up 23% on the month.
The auto sector is a key industry for steel producers but has been facing supply issues due to the ongoing semiconductor shortage, which in turn has affected production. On average, 900 kg of steel is used per vehicle.
S&P Global Insight Commodity assessed hot-rolled coil in Northern Europe at Eur900/mt ex-works Ruhr June 15, $22/mt lower than at the start of 2022.
For the first five months of the year, Germany topped the top four countries with 1 million units sold, down 9.3% on the year. In France, 600,893 units were sold, down 16.9% on the year, while registrations in Italy and Spain were 556,818 and 318,488, down 24.2% and 11.5%, respectively.
— Jacqueline Holman
