For dealers interested in how the Canadian motor vehicle assembly sector is doing, DesRosiers Automotive Consultants (DAC) reports that it is lagging behind the overall automotive industry.
Through much of this year, DAC talked about the pandemic and the semiconductor shortage as “the two key variables that have controlled the performance of the auto industry in Canada.” Now they have a third key variable to include.
“In looking at first half shipments data it is necessary to add a third variable to the mix however—the move to ZEVs and the related change in product mandates for a number of plants in the Canadian assembly sector,” said DAC. “This changeover has led to an ‘underperformance’ of the assembly sector in 2021 relative to other parts of the industry.”
The motor vehicle assembly sector climbed 1.9 per cent in the first half of 2021. In comparison, the metalworking machinery manufacturing industry experienced a strong recovery in the first half of 2021, increasing 38.4 per cent to $2.44 billion. Shipments even surpassed the first half 2019 figure of $2.14 billion.
The motor vehicle body and trailer manufacturing industry experienced something similar: a 30.8 per cent recovery in the first half of 2021, in-line with the shipment totals seen in the first half of 2019 and 2018. And shipments for the motor vehicle parts and accessories industry jumped 21.0 per cent in the first half of 2021.
“The picture in the assembly sector is very different. Shipments in the first half of 2021 reached $18.30 billion—slightly above the $17.96 billion noted in the first half of 2020, but well below the over-thirty-billion-dollar figures from years past,” said DAC.
Managing Partner Andrew King said in terms of actual production volumes the first half of 2021 saw “impressive totals at the Honda Alliston and Toyota Cambridge facilities. But changeovers and slowdowns elsewhere led to lukewarm production figures and subsequent shipment values.
