CSM Automotive Production Barometer (APB) - June 2005

DETROIT, June 13 -- CSM Worldwide, the leading provider of market intelligence and forecasting to the automotive industry, announces the June 2005 CSM Automotive Production Barometer(TM). Released in advance of existing sources of information, this service provides an accurate tally of light vehicle production for the previous month to assist automotive economists and financial analysts in their ongoing industry evaluations.

"Our Automotive Production Barometer is intended to mirror and expand on the Federal Reserve's estimate of U.S. light vehicle production," said Greg Mount, chief economist at CSM Worldwide. "With our industry knowledge, historical record-keeping and expertise in forecasting, we're able to provide an accurate count of U.S. and aggregate North American light vehicle production an average of three to four days in advance of the Federal Reserve's report. In an industry where minutes can matter, we see this as a significant advantage."

The CSM Automotive Production Barometer for June 2005 is currently available via the CSM Worldwide Web site: http://www.csmauto.com/auto-production-barometer . Subsequent reports will be posted to the same location on or near the 11th of each month, with a teleconference to discuss the report and other issues related to the light vehicle market. The teleconference is scheduled for June 13, 2005, at 10:00 a.m. EDT and will begin with a brief review of U.S. production results followed by a question and answer session lasting approximately 15 minutes. To access the conference call, please dial 1-800-639-6218.

U.S. light vehicle production fell below 1.0M units in May to 991,000 units produced, up just 0.1 percent on a year-over-year basis. On a seasonally adjusted basis, production inched up slightly to 11.05M units in May over last month, but fell 4.4 percent year-over-year. The story continues to center on the weakness of the traditional big three automakers as they again instituted in excess of 170 days of downtime across their operations in May. The downtime over the past two months in addition to recent sales campaigns have finally made an impact on inventory levels as they have moderated with a few exceptions. U.S. production is expected to climb next month, but will be tempered by continued additional downtime.

Production through May in the United States is off 4.1 percent over the same time period as last year to a seasonally adjusted rate of 11.45M units. GM closed three plants this month, the Baltimore, Lansing and Linden facilities that will contribute to lower volume for the remainder of the year. In addition, production of the full-size GMT800 SUVs will be scaled back as it prepares to launch the redesigned GMT900-based models later this year. Year to date, North American production fell 3.2 percent to 15.38M units on a seasonally adjusted basis and down 3.3 percent to 6.69M units produced through May.

North American production fell 2.2 percent in May against last month but increased 0.8 percent over last year to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 15.09M units. On a seasonally adjusted basis, output at GM and Ford fell 9.2 percent and 4.7 percent respectively, while output at DaimlerChrysler grew 2.8 percent. On an equally adjusted basis, North American production at Toyota, Nissan and Honda plants continued to grow compared to a year ago, up 6.7 percent, 20.7 percent and 14.8 percent respectively for the month.

CSM Worldwide (http://www.csmauto.com/ ) supports more than 350 of the world's top automakers, suppliers and financial organizations with global market intelligence and forecasting services. With corporate offices in Detroit, CSM Worldwide covers the global automotive environment from London, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Paris, Sao Paulo, Singapore, Shanghai, Bangalore and Budapest.