Bronco SUVs in manufacturing at Ford’s Michigan Meeting plant, June 14, 2021.
Michael Wayland | CNBC
DETROIT – Ford Motor’s U.S. automobile gross sales confirmed optimistic indicators of restoration from an ongoing scarcity of semiconductor chips that is wreaked havoc on the worldwide automotive trade this 12 months.
The Detroit automaker on Wednesday reported gross sales of 175,918 new automobiles in October, down by 4% from a 12 months in the past, however are a far narrower loss than in prior months. The gross sales mark Ford’s finest gross sales by quantity since April and the primary time since Might that the corporate hasn’t reported a double-digital monthly loss in contrast with 2020.
“Via June of this 12 months, Ford retail gross sales had been up 10.7%. With constrained inventories and report flip charges within the second quarter, now we have been working intently with our sellers gathering retail orders, that are up 16-fold over final 12 months,” mentioned Andrew Frick, Ford vice chairman of U.S. and Canada gross sales.
In one other optimistic word, Ford mentioned automobile inventories, which have been at record lows as a result of chip scarcity, elevated by 7,000 items from a month earlier to 243,000 automobiles and vehicles.
Ford’s gross sales final month outpaced the trade, in response to Cox Automotive. The auto analysis firm on Wednesday estimated new U.S. automobile gross sales had been down by about 21% in contrast with October 2020. That is higher than Cox’s preliminary forecast of a 30% decline.
“The market continues to be experiencing very low stock and correspondingly low incentives, however the worst is probably going behind us,” Cox mentioned in a launch.
Ford is amongst a handful of automakers to report new month-to-month automobile gross sales. Others reminiscent of General Motors and Stellantis (previously Fiat Chrysler) solely report quarterly gross sales.
Ford’s October gross sales come per week after the corporate nearly doubled Wall Street’s earnings expectations for the third quarter and raised its full-year adjusted earnings steering to between $10.5 billion and $11.5 billion, up from between $9 billion and $10 billion.
Nonetheless, Ford is not within the clear relating to its provide of semiconductor chips simply but. CFO John Lawler final week mentioned the corporate expects the chip scarcity to proceed into subsequent 12 months and doubtlessly, to a far lesser extent, into 2023.
Lawler mentioned Ford expects a ten% improve in wholesale automobile volumes in 2022 in contrast with this 12 months, because the semiconductor scarcity continues to influence the enterprise.
