John Leech, partner in KPMG’s Automotive practice, comments on the SMMT car production figures:
“Despite weakening demand in the UK and Eurozone, UK car production rose on the back of strong exports to developing economies such as China. Figures show that total new car production for 2011 was 5.8% up at 1.3 million, although this remains substantially down on the 1.9 million cars made in 2004.
“Weak local demand has seen UK manufacturers scaling back production – 2011 was adversely impacted by the Japanese earthquake and Thai floods so 2012 will see significant new models entering production at Nissan, Honda and Toyota. In the UK, we expect total production to strengthen in 2012 to 1.4 million new cars.
“All in all, we expect a gradually improving story with the second half of 2012 faring better than the first half. There are significant investments in new models and production capacity at a number of plants, notably at JLR and BMW. Despite the threats from global macroeconomic uncertainty, there’s great potential for the UK auto industry to grow and develop from a manufacturing and supply-chain perspective.”
Ends
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Arti Mohan, Corporate Communications
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Notes to Editors:
About KPMG
KPMG LLP, a UK limited liability partnership, is a subsidiary of KPMG Europe LLP and operates from 22 offices across the UK with over 11,000 partners and staff. The UK firm recorded a turnover of £1.7 billion in the year ended September 2011. KPMG is a global network of professional firms providing Audit, Tax, and Advisory services. We operate in 152 countries and have 145,000 professionals working in member firms around the world. The independent member firms of the KPMG network are affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative ("KPMG International"), a Swiss entity. KPMG International provides no client services.
