International automobile sales by region 2018-2024
In 2020, light vehicle sales worldwide declined by almost 15 percent. By 2023, the market had increased to pre-pandemic levels, despite supply chain issues, surges in automotive layoffs, and strikes in North America. In North America, around 18.5 million light vehicles were sold in 2023. Light vehicle sales were to be around 15.5 million units in the United States, North America's largest market, up from around 13.8 million units one year earlier.
Semiconductors Thrive
Amidst the brewing tension brought forth due to the COVID-19 pandemic and global conflict, the semiconductor supply chain saw significant disruptions. Seemingly, one would expect that particular industry to have suffered greatly from such disruptions, but despite everything, global semiconductor industry revenue actually increased during 2020 and beyond, going from 422 billion U.S. dollars in 2019 up to 600 billion in 2022. In 2023, and even more so in 2024, the demand for semiconductors has surged, with companies like NVIDIA having nearly two trillion U.S. dollars of market capitalization.
Automotive Supply
Global automotive suppliers, such as Bosch and Denso, suffered losses during the same period of instability in recent years, where the top 10 leading global automotive suppliers saw decreases in revenue from 332 billion U.S. dollars in 2019 to 280 billion dollars in 2020. These revenues bounced back in 2021 and beyond, reaching 346 billion dollars in 2022. In particular, the earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) margins of nearly every automotive supply segment have bounced back from the reported disruptions; this includes original equipment manufacturers, and software suppliers.
