Output of passenger cars from German assembly lines in the first five months of the year reached 1.49 million units, Kallanish hears from national carmakers federation VDA.
This is 25% above the production volume of the corresponding prior-year period, which was extremely affected by the lockdown of the first Covid-19 wave, with full standstills at carmakers. This shows, especially in the figure for May, which at 250,100 units is 58% up on May 2020.
Still, VDA notes that current production is still a big way away from pre-pandemic performance levels. It cites the prevailing shortage of semiconductors as the main obstacle to a higher utilisation of production capacities. VDA’s statement should make the steel industry watch out, because it could mean that carmakers’ demand could still be higher than it is, and thereby aggravate the current steel shortage.
Domestic order volume in January-May went up 17%, while orders from abroad rose by 37%. The most remarkable year-on-year increase was also for exports, which rose 75% to 177,700 units.
Christian Koehl Germany
