British car production to hit 6 year high this year

Automobiles production in Britain is set to rise to 1.5 million vehicles this year, hitting a six-year high, said the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) on Thursday. The industry trading body said that production had hit 1.42 million units for the first 11 months of this year, driven by an influx of new models, such as the third-generation Mini. Mike Hawes, chief executive at SMMT, commented: "With output up 4.5 percent in 2013 to date, British car manufacturing is on track to pass 1.5 million units this year, the best performance since 2007." A total of 137,624 cars were made in Britain last month, declining 3.6 percent from the figure in November 2012, figures showed. The drop of production was due to the manufacturers' preparation their production line for new models, said Hawes. "The forthcoming new models will play an integral part in what is predicted to be an even stronger 2014 for UK car manufacturing," he added. Car production would hit two million a year by 2017, it was forecast. Sales abroad, however, only witnessed a mere growth of 0.3 percent this year, said SMMT, partly due to weak economic conditions in Europe. But the industry trading body reckoned that the euro area was "turning a corner" after seeing the number of registrations there increase for three consecutive months.