UK car production steady in February | Automotive Industry News

British isles car or truck output was regular in February (with a decline of just .8% as opposed to very last 12 months), but the month precedes the time period when the COVID-19 crisis hit and companies suspended output. The details for the month of March will inevitably see a large decline to British isles car or truck output.

Even so, some 122,171 autos rolled off output strains in February, representing a reduction of just about one,000 models in comparison with February 2019. The slight decline was driven by slower need in some critical world export marketplaces.

In the month prior to the coronavirus pandemic started off to be felt in the British isles, export shipments fell by 3.one% to just short of ninety five,000 models. Despite the fact that mixed EU need rallied (up +3.6%), exports to the US and Asia fell considerably. In the meantime, there was favourable information for the domestic current market, wherever output rose by 7.8%, with 27,172 autos manufactured. Calendar year-to-date figures exhibit a one.five% 12 months-on-12 months fall in all round output.

The figures arrive at a time of unprecedented problem for the British isles and its automotive sector, with all car or truck production crops now on shutdown as the region focuses endeavours on overcoming the crisis.

An original assessment commissioned by SMMT of the opportunity affect of these shutdowns implies a reduction of all around two hundred,000 models by the close of 2020, just below one.one million models – a slide of eighteen%. Even so, the affect could be significantly more serious if the crisis, and therefore shutdowns, were being to very last for months as an alternative of months, the SMMT observed.

Mike Hawes, SMMT Chief Executive, explained: “In spite of the myriad world difficulties the British isles automotive sector has confronted in modern moments, it remains fundamentally potent and February’s figures replicate that. Even so, these figures also replicate the calm prior to the storm. With British isles car or truck crops now properly on national shutdown and lots of world marketplaces shut, the outlook is of deep concern. We wholeheartedly welcome government’s remarkable bundle of emergency guidance for corporations and personnel, but this have to get as a result of to corporations now.

“If we’re to hold this sector alive and in a posture to support Britain get back again on its feet, we urgently will need funding to be introduced, further measures to ease stress on cashflow and clarity on how work guidance measures will operate.”