We’ve replaced our dollars chart onautomotive spending in this sector with achart on unit sales of domestic vehicles.This doesn’t address topics like changes inimports of assemblies versus assembliesbuilt in the U.S. that would consumemechanical tubing but it does moreadequately address the all important unitsales along with the shift from autos to lighttrucks which does change mechanical tubeconsumption patterns without regard, giventhe caveat above, to where that mechanicaltubing is coming from. According to thedata, the first half of 2017 registered an11% decline in car sales partially offset by a4.6% rise in truck sales. With the ratio ofvehicles at not quite 2-1 trucks versus cars,the net effect so far this year is a decline ofabout 2% in overall unit sales.
展开▼
