GM's Domestic Sales Surged Last Quarter, Despite UAW Strike
Ever since the United Auto Workers union called a strike at General Motors (NYSE: GM) following the expiration of their four-year contract in mid-September, pundits and analysts have been trying to estimate how much the strike would hurt GM. High inventory gave the automaker some ability to absorb a production shutdown, but it wasn't clear how much slack there was before inventory constraints would start to hurt sales.
Based on the third-quarter sales results that GM reported on Wednesday, the strike hasn't started to pinch the General's sales in a meaningful way. Nevertheless, if General Motors and the UAW can't reach an agreement soon, the cost of the strike could start to escalate rapidly.
In the first half of 2019, GM's total domestic deliveries slipped 4.2% year over year. The discontinuation of several unprofitable car models represented the biggest driver of this decline. Low inventory of GM's full-size pickups -- due to the changeover to all-new versions of the Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra light-duty trucks -- also weighed on sales.
Source Fool.com
