The UK’s car output in November climbed year on year for the third successive month, with a 3% hike to 142,920 units.
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Year-to-date output is up just 0.8%, however, to 1,545,147 units, with 1,059,909 or 68.9% exported.
December’s output needs to reach 105,000 units, a 7.6% month-on-month rise, to reach the 1.65 million unit year-end forecast.
Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) chief executive Christopher Macgowan said: “Growth throughout 2003 has largely focused on production for export and with one month to go, its year-to-date figure already exceeds 2002’s year-end total.”
Commercial vehicle volume in November 2003 was up just 0.8% year on year to 18,958 units and production for the year to end November was down by 3.4% to 171,844. Exports are down 11.5% to 93,048.
The ever-optimistic Macgowan said November’s CV output was back on par with the strong volume in 2002.
“The overall monthly change in output has been variable in 2003 with some months of growth and decline. However, the underlying annual total remains broadly stable around the 190,000 unit mark. Weak demand in Europe has blunted the export potential, but at home it has been consistently strong. This has helped plants to refocus some of their activities on the domestic market. We still expect to see some improvement in exports in 2004 as the modest recovery now underway in the EU takes a firmer hold.”
