New passenger car registrations in the European Union rose 4.4%% year on year in August to 650,305 units, the first year-on-year increase since June 2021, according to European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) data released Sept. 16.
However, August’s volume was 11.9% lower than the previous month and a nine-month low, and far below pre-pandemic levels, ACEA said.
Total sales for the first eight months of 2022 were 6 million units, down 11.9% year on year, the data showed.
The auto market has been facing supply issues due to the ongoing semiconductor shortage, which in turn has affected production.
This has also somewhat impacted steel demand, with Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, assessing domestic hot-rolled coil prices in Northern Europe at Eur745/mt ex-works Ruhr Sept. 15, 19.2% lower than it was at the start of 2022.
All three top European markets – Germany, France and Italy – saw year-in-year increases in August.
The largest EU car market, Germany, saw new car registrations increase 3% year on year to 199,183 units, although this was 3.3% down on the month and at a four-month low.
German car registrations for the January-August period totaled 1.6 million units, down 9.8% on the year.
In second largest market France, sales for the month rose 3.8% on the year, but fell 15% on the month to 91,403 units, a one-year low.
Similarly, car sales in Italy climbed 9.9% on the year to 71,190 units, but dropped 35% from July to the lowest volume since August 2021.
January-August car sales in France totaled 970,930 units, down 13.8% on the year, while sales in Italy dropped 18.4% to 864,821 units.
In Spain, 51,907 units were sold in August, rising 9.1% on the year, but down 29.3% on the month to a seven-month low, bringing the total for the January-August period to 533,025 units, down 9.4% year on year.
— Jacqueline Holman
