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Hyundai's new Brazilian production facility
Despite a mixed bag of
fortunes, AID’s provisional set of full year 2012 figures suggests
that growth in last year’s global car production reached just under 7 per cent,
fuelled in the main by North America, where last year’s light vehicle output
soared 17.4 per cent from a year earlier on the coattails of a double-digit
expansion in last year’s US sales.
There was more help from Japan, where output rocketed ahead by almost a quarter.
But that compares to the low levels seen only the year before, when the
earthquake in Japan and floods in Thailand caused unprecedented disruption to
car production.
Another disappointment for market observers was India, where last year’s
passenger car production remained largely unchanged, thanks to a meagre 3.8 per
cent rise in last year’s domestic sales.
17.4%
Last year's North American light vehicle
output expansion on the previous year
Apart from a few isolated
bright spots such as the UK, car plants in Western Europe felt the brunt of the
lingering eurozone crisis.
Based chiefly on last year’s known car production in most major markets, last
year’s car production in Western Europe is estimated to have slipped by close on
9 per cent, according to provisional AID estimates.
There was better news from Eastern Europe. Both Russia and Slovakia in
particular stand out as relative bright spots in Europe’s otherwise gloomy car
production scene.
Provisional indications are that last year’s healthy expansion in both Russia
and Slovakia was sufficient to make up at least some of the slack from the
region’s otherwise faltering car production.
But last year’s trendbucking car output gains in Russia and Slovakia, where
according to provisional AID estimates output grew by a respective 13
and a striking 40 per cent, the sudden bounce in car output seen there was
almost entirely due to special factors...more
DATA
AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS WITH THIS ARTICLE:
WORLD
PROVISIONAL CAR PRODUCTION by REGION:
WORLD new
PASSENGER car PRODUCTION:
by
REGION 2012 VS 2011
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