Toronto, Ontario — Axalta reports its third-quarter financial results, Tesla makes big production plans and Toyota boasts re-ramped production in this week’s Tuesday Ticker.
Coatings on the rise
Axalta reported its third-quarter financial results for 2020 last week, where the coatings company said net sales for this quarter came in 57.3 percent higher than the previous quarter of this year.
Despite the increase from 2020’s second-quarter, third-quarter net sales of $1,026.9 million marked a 7.2 percent decrease year-over-year, driven by six percent lower volumes and 1.4 percent lower average price and product mix.
Performance coatings recorded a 5.7 percent net sales decline, including nearly flat industrial net sales when compared to the year before, while refinish net sales decline nine percent, marking what Axalta calls “a strong recovery ahead of expectations.”
The 10.2 percent net sales decline for transportation coatings benefited from faster than expected recovery in light vehicle production, most notably in North America and China.
Axalta posted 1.4 percent headwinds in year-over-year price and product mix, still impacted by abnormal product mix given substantial product and geographic mix differences from the prior year given overall volume declines.
For more information Axalta’s Q3 report, click here.
Making half-a-million
Tesla is attempting to increase production by more than 17 percent quarter-over-quarter to produce 500,000 vehicles total in 2020, according to a leaked email from CEO Elon Musk.
Last week, Electrek obtained an email to employees where Musk told staff he sees Tesla reaching the production of 500,000 vehicles in 2020.
Musk’s email reads: “It will be tough but super exciting if we can exceed 500,000 cars made in a single year for the first time in Tesla history. When we started Tesla just over 16 years ago, I never thought we would get this far, but, thanks to your hard work and ingenuity, we actually have a chance at making half a million cars in a single year.”
He said, “it all comes down to Q4.”
“Please take whatever steps you can think of to improve output (while increasing quality),” the CEO wrote.
Tesla has produced just short of 330,000 vehicles in the first three quarters of 2020.
The company said it met record production of 145,000 cars in Q3, but to meet the half-a-million mark Musk is striving for, Tesla will need to produce 170,000 vehicles in Q4 alone.
Up and at ‘em
Last week Toyota said its North American production is back to 94 percent capacity.
During an Oct. 21 teleconference, Chris Reynolds, Toyota Motor North America’s head of manufacturing, said North American production had increased to 93.7 percent of capacity by the end of September. That compares with 95.9 percent of capacity at the same point in 2019.
“Many of our plants have been working overtime and Saturdays to help meet our strong customer demand for products,” said Reynolds. “Our team members in the plants are voting with their feet. They believe in safety protocols, respect them and, even though many [restrictions] are uncomfortable and inconvenient, they get the job done.”
Toyota operates two plants in Ontario; one in Cambridge and another in Woodstock.
