According to ACT Research’s latest release of the North American Commercial Vehicle Outlook, the setup for the entire commercial vehicle industry remains unchanged from its recent trends, strong demand and constrained supply, but major automotive CEOs recently reported that they believe the semiconductor shortage bottomed in the September-October period.
“Despite rock-solid demand metrics across the spectrum of medium and heavy-duty vehicle types, industry capacity remains range-bound across a broad front of supply-chain constraints,” said Kenny Vieth, president and senior analyst, ACT Research. “Those constraints are not localized CV industry-specific challenges, but continue as pandemic-driven failures in a globally reliant web of interrelated supply chains. Rebuilding complex global networks requires the system to spin at roughly the same speed, which it is decidedly not doing at present.
“On the positive side of the ledger,” he continued, “in the recent round of Q3 earnings calls, major automotive CEOs indicated that they believe the semiconductor shortage bottomed in the September-October period. Backing up those claims, for the first time in eight months, automotive inventories in the US actually rose sequentially in October. Less positive is that despite their lofty roles at the top of the global automotive industry, the CEOs remain less than forthcoming about when they believe the chip situation will experience material easing.”
The N.A. CV Outlook is a report that forecasts the future of the industry, looking at the next one to five years, with the objective of giving OEMs, Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers, and investment firms the information needed to plan accordingly for what is to come. The report provides a complete overview of the North American markets, as well as takes a deep dive into relevant, current market activity to highlight orders, production, and backlogs, shedding light on the forecast. Information included in this report covers forecasts and current market conditions for medium and heavy-duty trucks/tractors, and trailers, the macroeconomies of the US, Canada, and Mexico, publicly-traded carrier information, oil and fuel price impacts, freight and intermodal considerations, and regulatory environment impacts.
