New York
CNN
—
The strike at General Motors crops in September and October took a chew out of its fourth-quarter gross sales, however sturdy demand for the automobiles made at its different crops allowed the corporate to report a slender achieve in US car gross sales total.
The strike ran from September 15 by a tentative settlement reached with the United Auto Staff union on October 30. And the differing influence might be seen within the gross sales figures reported by GM Wednesday.
The UAW strike was a focused motion in opposition to particular meeting crops of all three firms. There have been a dozen fashions which are constructed on the three GM crops that went on strike for greater than a few days – Wentzville, Missouri, Arlington Texas and Lansing-Delta Township in Michigan, along with the Fairfax plant in Kansas Metropolis, Kansas, which was shut by the dearth of elements being produced by the close by Wentzville plant.
Whereas GM’s assertion on gross sales didn’t point out the strike or its impact on gross sales, these 12 fashions noticed gross sales within the quarter fall 27.5%, in response to evaluation of the numbers by CNN, whereas fashions constructed at different crops had gross sales improve 14% in comparison with the year-earlier quarter.
Gross sales of GM’s two full-size pickups, the Chevy Silverado and the GMC Sierra, rose solely 3% within the quarter, even though manufacturing of these fashions weren’t affected by the strike. That’s down from the 14% progress price reported for these fashions within the first 9 months of the 12 months.
“In 2024, we anticipate business gross sales to stay sturdy and we’re excited in regards to the alternatives forward as we develop buyer alternative with new automobiles,” mentioned Marissa West, president of GM’s North America unit.
By way of the primary three quarters of 2023, GM gross sales have been up 19% in comparison with the identical interval of 2022. With the basically flat gross sales within the fourth quarter, it ended the 12 months up 14%.
However some slowdown was more likely to have occurred within the fourth quarter even with out the strike, as the primary 9 months of 2022 noticed weak gross sales as a consequence of a scarcity of elements, notably pc chips, wanted to construct new vehicles. That choked provides on sellers’ tons and drove up costs. Provides of these elements had began to enhance by the fourth quarter of 2022, making comparisons tougher.
“The expansion was sure to not be as speedy because it has been,” mentioned Michelle Krebs, govt analyst with Cox Automotive. “The upshot of what we’re seeing is that December ended fairly sturdy. We do know there was wheeling and dealing at dealerships on the finish of the month.
Stellantis, one of many different automakers that was struck by the UAW, is because of report outcomes afterward Wednesday. It went into the strike with a bigger stock of automobiles available than the opposite two unionized automakers. Ford, the third automaker hit by the focused strike, is because of report gross sales on Thursday.