The European Auto Sector Struggles as Car Registrations Sink

It’s a particularly quiet day on the Eurozone economic calendar today. There were no material stats for the European markets to consider ahead of the U.S session.

The lack of material stats did give EU car registration figures more airtime than usual.

Car Registrations Sink as Lockdown Measures Bite

German car registrations tumbled by 45.5% in January, month-on-month, reversing a modest 7.3% rise from December.

The slide in January left car registrations down by 31.1% year-on-year. In December, car registrations had risen by 9.9% year-on-year.

Things were marginally better out of France, where car registrations slid by 32.2% in January. In December, car registrations had jumped by 47.8% month-on-month.

Year-on-year, car registrations were down by just 5.8% in January. This was an improvement on December, where registrations had fallen by 11.8%.

While the domestic auto sector struggled in both France and Germany, Italy did buck the trend.

Car registrations rose by 12.2%, month-on-month, reversing most of a 13.7% slide from December.

Year-on-year, registrations were down by 14.0%, however. In December, registrations had been down by 14.9%.

While the numbers were dire, the auto sector has hopes of a strong recovery.

Market Impact

The European majors had a mixed morning as did the auto sector.

At the time of writing, Daimler was up by 0.96% to buck the trend.

It’s been bearish for the rest, however.

Continental was down by 1.69%, with BMW and Volkswagen down by 0.04% and by 0.41% respectively.

From France, Stellantis was worst hit, sliding by 2.07%, with Renault declining by 0.64%.

For the European majors, the DAX30 and the EuroStoxx600 were down by 0.58% and 0.32% respectively. The CAC was down by just 0.02%.

The EUR also took a hit in response to the numbers, falling from $1.208 levels to bring sub-$1.20 levels into play.

Market optimism of a speedy economic recovery and rebound in the sector cushioned the blow on all fronts, however.

At the time of writing, the EUR was down by 0.38% to $1.20598.