For the first seven months of the current year, output thus reached only 57 per cent, of the comparable 1937 total, and during August and September, production has been on almost a "nominal" basis. Whatever the final output figure for the full year, there is no denying that producers have passed through a very lean period. Over the last two months or so, however, there have been important indications of revival. In the first place, the industry generally abandoned the wide shut-down plans which were discussed in June. Even the modest output of July and August was thus above earlier expectations and, more important still, there was the encouraging news that dealers' stock had been reduced in many cases to actual shortage levels; that retail sales were better than expectations, and that enquiries for new models were on a scale which suggested a considerably more active year.
In the U.S. automobile industry, of course, as in many other American industries, the evidence of incipient revival still lies in sentiment rather than in solid figures. But there is definite ground for optimism. Stocks have been reduced to relatively small proportions; the records of production and registration show. a public willingness to make new purchases as soon as financial circumstances permit; and production has for many months been well below the theoretical level which is needed to maintain on a reasonable level of efficiency the 29,650,000 units registered in the United States last year.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.