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Tuesday, 10 February 2009
China’s monthly auto sales overtake US
Mainland’s monthly vehicle sales surpassed those in the United States for the first time in January, moving this country closer to becoming the world’s biggest auto market, data released on Tuesday showed.
Mainland’s monthly vehicle sales surpassed those in the United States for the first time in January, moving this country closer to becoming the world’s biggest auto market, data released on Tuesday showed.
With its growing middle class and vast potential as a consumer market, mainland is vital for global automakers such as General Motors, Volkswagen and Toyota as they count on demand here to offset weakness in the US and elsewhere.
Some 735,000 vehicles were sold in mainland in January, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said. That surpassed the 656,976 units that consultant Autodata Corp said were sold in the United States in the same month.
But mainland’s ascent has been hastened by the dramatic plunge in the US auto market, where sales tumbled 37 per cent in January to a 26-year low.
Mainland’s domestic auto market also has cooled, but less dramatically. Sales here fell 14.4 per cent from a monthly record 860,000 in January last year.
Mike DiGiovanni, General Motors’ executive director of global market and industry analysis, said last week he expected mainland auto sales could hit 10.7 million units this year, more than his estimate of 9.8 million unit sales in the US this year. Autodata forecasts this year US sales at 9.57 million.
In 2006, mainland overtook Japan to become the world’s No 2 vehicle market in annual sales. With 1.3 billion people, the country’s climb to the top spot is inevitable, industry experts say.
Still, if American car sales recover in coming months the US could remain the world’s largest market by annual sales.
Mainland’s biggest automakers are GM and Germany’s Volkswagen AG but its own ambitious producers, such as Chery Automobile, are growing fast. General Motors says it sold a record 1.09 million vehicles in mainland, up 6 per cent from last year.
January sales in mainland were 0.8 per cent below those in December and well below the 790,000 some analysts had anticipated.
To spur the slowing auto market here, the government has rolled out measures to help boost vehicle sales as part of a multibillion-dollar economic stimulus package while it also tries to promote cleaner, more energy-efficient engines.
The sales tax on cars with engines less than 1.6 litres has been cut by half to 5 per cent through the end of the year. The government also is spending 5 billion yuan (HK$5.6 billion) on subsidies to farmers to replace three-wheeled vehicles or outdated trucks with small, 1.3-litre or less vehicles.
Another 10 billion yuan is going into upgrading automakers’ technology and developing alternative energy vehicles.
In last year, mainland’s auto sales grew 6.7 per cent from the previous to 9.38 million units — the first time growth has fallen below 10 per cent since 1999.
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China’s monthly auto sales overtake US
AP in Shanghai
10 February 2009
Mainland’s monthly vehicle sales surpassed those in the United States for the first time in January, moving this country closer to becoming the world’s biggest auto market, data released on Tuesday showed.
With its growing middle class and vast potential as a consumer market, mainland is vital for global automakers such as General Motors, Volkswagen and Toyota as they count on demand here to offset weakness in the US and elsewhere.
Some 735,000 vehicles were sold in mainland in January, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said. That surpassed the 656,976 units that consultant Autodata Corp said were sold in the United States in the same month.
But mainland’s ascent has been hastened by the dramatic plunge in the US auto market, where sales tumbled 37 per cent in January to a 26-year low.
Mainland’s domestic auto market also has cooled, but less dramatically. Sales here fell 14.4 per cent from a monthly record 860,000 in January last year.
Mike DiGiovanni, General Motors’ executive director of global market and industry analysis, said last week he expected mainland auto sales could hit 10.7 million units this year, more than his estimate of 9.8 million unit sales in the US this year. Autodata forecasts this year US sales at 9.57 million.
In 2006, mainland overtook Japan to become the world’s No 2 vehicle market in annual sales. With 1.3 billion people, the country’s climb to the top spot is inevitable, industry experts say.
Still, if American car sales recover in coming months the US could remain the world’s largest market by annual sales.
Mainland’s biggest automakers are GM and Germany’s Volkswagen AG but its own ambitious producers, such as Chery Automobile, are growing fast. General Motors says it sold a record 1.09 million vehicles in mainland, up 6 per cent from last year.
January sales in mainland were 0.8 per cent below those in December and well below the 790,000 some analysts had anticipated.
To spur the slowing auto market here, the government has rolled out measures to help boost vehicle sales as part of a multibillion-dollar economic stimulus package while it also tries to promote cleaner, more energy-efficient engines.
The sales tax on cars with engines less than 1.6 litres has been cut by half to 5 per cent through the end of the year. The government also is spending 5 billion yuan (HK$5.6 billion) on subsidies to farmers to replace three-wheeled vehicles or outdated trucks with small, 1.3-litre or less vehicles.
Another 10 billion yuan is going into upgrading automakers’ technology and developing alternative energy vehicles.
In last year, mainland’s auto sales grew 6.7 per cent from the previous to 9.38 million units — the first time growth has fallen below 10 per cent since 1999.
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