Automotive companies listed on stock exchanges made a strong start to 2023 on hopes that worldwide sales will recover after a shortage of microprocessors stalled last year.
So far in 2023, the 10 largest publicly traded auto companies have gained $128.27 billion in market value, including electric car maker BYD from China (+17.55%) and Tesla from the United States (+17.25%) ) are the highest recoveries.
“In recent months, some supply chains have been normalized by microprocessors and this has a lot to do with the lifting of restrictions in China due to COVID-19,” said Jacobo Rodriguez, director of analysis at Black WallStreet Capital.
Other automotive companies whose shares gained the most so far in the first month of the year are German Mercedes-Benz and BMW, which are up more than 10% each, as well as Ford and Porsche, which are up 9.97 and 9.87%, respectively. .
With more moderate gains are American General Motors (+7.97%), German Volkswagen (+7.15%), Japanese Toyota (+5.10%) and Dutch Stellantis (+4.92%).
Such gains so far this new year are a tiny fraction of everything automakers lost during 2022, in which they collectively wiped out more than $900 billion in market capitalization.
Tesla alone lost $671 billion in market value last year.
“The automotive sector has been facing significant challenges since the pandemic hit, as many supply chains have been halted, mainly due to a shortage of microprocessors,” said Jacobo Rodriguez.
The analyst assures that if there is a shortage of chips, car production will stop, which has been reflected in lower sales for the worldwide automotive industry in recent years.
According to a forecast by Scotiabank Global Economics, global new car sales will hit 66.1 million units in 2022, down from 66.7 million cars sold last year.
Most of the gap was due to sales declines in North America, where 1.3 million fewer cars were sold than in 2021, and Europe, a region that sold 1.5 million fewer units.
The United States was the country whose sales fell the most in 2022 (-1.2 million), followed by Russia with 800,000 fewer vehicles sold.
These losses were partially offset by growth in the Asia region, where 2.1 million more units were sold than in 2021.
In China, car sales saw an increase of 1.5 million units, while India sold an additional 600,000 cars.
The biggest losers in the stock market last year was Tesla, whose shares fell 65.03%, followed by Ford, Volkswagen and General Motors, whose shares fell more than 40 percent.
BYD and Stellantis had negative returns of more than 20%, while Toyota (-13.92%), Mercedes-Benz (-9.16%) and BMW (-5.77%) also posted red numbers.
“It’s been some kind of supply chain hell for several years,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on a conference call with analysts to discuss his company’s second-quarter 2022 results.
come recovery this year
Scotiabank forecasts auto sales to rise 6% to 69.9 million units this year and 5% to 73.6 million units by 2024.
The foregoing, as a shortage of microprocessors that affected the entire automotive industry as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, is being resolved.
Laura Gu, an economist at Scotiabank, said global car sales should improve this year “to the extent that supply and demand conditions are relaxed.”
The expert said that “rising interest rates, widespread pressure on the cost of living, along with higher vehicle prices, will continue to weigh on sentiment in the near term.” However, he added that “an aging vehicle inventory will support a recovery in sales going forward.” should do.”
Gu noted that the recovery in 2023 will be led by North American and Western European regions, two regions that dragged down sales last year.
Despite the expected recovery, if the 2024 projections are met, new car sales will still lag behind pre-pandemic levels. 74.8 million new cars were sold in 2019.
The only region expected to exceed pre-pandemic levels by 2024 is Asia, with projected sales of 37.4 million vehicles versus 33.8 million in 2019.
biggest consumer china
China is the largest consumer of new cars in the world.
In 2022, Scotiabank forecasts 23.0 million units to be sold in the Asian nation, accounting for 35% of the total number of vehicles sold globally.
Sales in China exceed that of the United States, which is set to consolidate in second place worldwide with 14.8 million new cars sold in 2022.
An estimated 1.08 million new vehicles were sold in Mexico, which is less than the 1.98 million units sold in Brazil.
With inputs from The Economist
