Financing Costs, Used Auto Supply Likely to Restrain Growth in New Car Sales, Says SDI Executive
05/18/2016 - Steelmakers are continuing to look to the automotive market as source of healthy demand, but one steel executive said he’s not as bullish as others when it comes to auto sales forecasts in the U.S.
Glenn Pushis, senior vice president of Steel Dynamics Inc.’s long products division, said he believes loan costs and a wave of leased vehicles that will be entering the used market will cap new-car sales, holding them to between 16.5 million and 17 million units annually over the next few years.
Automakers sold nearly 17.5 million light vehicles in the U.S. during 2015, a record year for the industry.
Pushis, speaking during the annual Town Hall Forum panel discussion at AISTech 2016, said he disagrees with forecasts that project annual sales of upwards of 20 million units.
“There are too many leased vehicles that are going to be coming back out onto the market that aren’t being accounted for,” Pushis said.
Specific forecasts aside, the automotive market remains an attractive opportunity for tubemaker TMK IPSCO, said Piotr Galitzine, the company’s chairman and chief executive, said during the Town Hall Forum.
TMK IPSCO is predominantly an oil country tubular goods manufacturer, but it sells products into the automotive market.
“But we’d like to do more,” Galitzine said, adding that the company also sees demand for housing steel, hollow structural sections and mechanical tubing, and plans to grow those businesses.
“We think it behooves our company to have several lines of business like this,” he said.
The company last week announced that it had created a U.S.-based industrial tube unit -- TMK Industrial Solutions LLC -- that will sell seamless mechanical tube, coupling stock, boiler and heat exchanger tubing, nickel-based alloys, stainless and heavy wright drill pipe, and billets.
Automakers sold nearly 17.5 million light vehicles in the U.S. during 2015, a record year for the industry.
Pushis, speaking during the annual Town Hall Forum panel discussion at AISTech 2016, said he disagrees with forecasts that project annual sales of upwards of 20 million units.
“There are too many leased vehicles that are going to be coming back out onto the market that aren’t being accounted for,” Pushis said.
Specific forecasts aside, the automotive market remains an attractive opportunity for tubemaker TMK IPSCO, said Piotr Galitzine, the company’s chairman and chief executive, said during the Town Hall Forum.
TMK IPSCO is predominantly an oil country tubular goods manufacturer, but it sells products into the automotive market.
“But we’d like to do more,” Galitzine said, adding that the company also sees demand for housing steel, hollow structural sections and mechanical tubing, and plans to grow those businesses.
“We think it behooves our company to have several lines of business like this,” he said.
The company last week announced that it had created a U.S.-based industrial tube unit -- TMK Industrial Solutions LLC -- that will sell seamless mechanical tube, coupling stock, boiler and heat exchanger tubing, nickel-based alloys, stainless and heavy wright drill pipe, and billets.
