Carmageddon: After Abysmal April Sales, Auto Workers Prepare For “Extended” Summer Shutdowns

Auto OEMs typically shut down plants once a year during the summer to retool for model changeovers and whatever general maintenance is required. But this year summer shutdowns will be about much more than just retooling plants. With inventory soaring on dealer lots, auto OEMs will likely have no choice but to extend their typically summer shut down schedule and it will take a ‘yuge’ toll on the 1,000s of auto workers that are considered “short term” employees and not eligible for unemployment benefits…the folks who pretty much single-handedly voted Trump into the White House.
As we noted yesterday (see “Auto Bloodbath: Every OEM Misses April Sales Estimates As Inventories Continue To Soar“), after an abysmal March print and growing speculation on wall street that auto sales are looking less like a “plateau” (Ford’s label not ours) and more like a debt-fueled bubble on the verge of an epic collapse, auto investors were looking toward April auto sales for signs of hope. Unfortunately, the “hope” trade failed to materialize as every single, major auto OEM missed their April sales estimates in fairly spectacular fashion.
The total auto SAAR came in at 16.8mm for April, compared to hopes of 17.1mm, and the YoY change in unit sales was the worst since 2011.

This post was published at Zero Hedge on May 3, 2017.