As dockworkers strike across ports on the East and Gulf Coasts, Julie Hyman and Josh Lipton sit down with Erin Keating, Cox Automotive's executive analyst, to discuss what the work stoppage means for the auto industry.

“The longevity of this strike will have some effect downwind long term, but right now we're not anticipating that this is going to be felt at the dealership lots immediately. Right now we're sitting on good inventory across the US, especially with European brands above national average inventory, actually. And it's a lot of the European brands that are coming through the East Coast. And so we don't believe that the consumers are going to feel pinched quite yet,” Keating tells Yahoo Finance.

The analyst adds, “In fact, it might actually serve the dealers to have more customers coming in and plenty of supply on the ground right now where we might see some pressure is with parts as time goes on, and certainly in the future. Again, depending on how long this takes, we might see some pressure on vehicles coming into the country in broad strokes.”

She says that European automakers are most at risk of being affected by supply chain disruptions caused by the strike since they typically ship to the East Coast, noting that “A lot of this has been on the docket for quite some time. People have been able to prepare. We've heard of the consumer retail brands being able to prepare. Automotive brands have been able to prepare as well.”

“What we may see is a little bit of more traffic interstate, if you will, either with rail or with trucking, just because we are now having to accommodate different pathways around the country with things going over to the West Coast needing to be brought in or more containers having been delivered earlier on the East Coast than perhaps anticipated, and therefore just more movement within the East Coast and Gulf Coast,” Keating explains.

With the port strike only adding to election-year uncertainty, Keating says some muted auto sale activity is expected. “We anticipated things were going to get muted or stay stable prior to the election. We know people are sitting waiting on the sidelines, just wanting to see what happens with this election.” The analyst does expect “there will be more momentum towards the end of the year.”

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This post was written by Naomi Buchanan.