SUPPLIER EYE

Much has been written about the extraordinary vehicle production and market environment of the past four years in North America and beyond. The plethora of negative impacts from COVID, chip availability, scarcity of labor, inflation, shipping disruptions and union/OEM disputes can all be boiled down to what's best described as an “operational hell.” Everyone is happy to put this all behind us.

The dawn of 2024, at least for North America, has enabled some stability from a volume perspective as the industry slowly rebuilds inventory and adjustments are made to the pace of BEV volume buildout over the next couple of years. This should offer some familiarity and a welcome breather from the highly unpredictable environments we've seen since late 2019. That being noted, there's a question in the air about the new, inexperienced challenges that might lurk around the corner.