Auto sales up slowest in 19 months
Print Edition
CHINA’S September auto sales rose 2.5 percent from a year earlier, its slowest pace in 19 months, dragged down by sluggish sales of commercial vehicles such as trucks, an industry association said yesterday.
Vehicles sales totaled 1.98 million units last month, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said in Beijing. Passenger vehicle sales rose 6.4 percent while commercial vehicle sales slumped 16 percent.
During the first nine months of 2014, China’s vehicle sales rose 7 percent from a year earlier.
CAAM has forecast that the market will expand 8.3 percent this year, slowing from last year’s 13.9 percent pace.
“China already has a huge auto market, and with more cities expected to restrict auto sales to fight pollution, it’s natural for growth to slow down,” said Li Xiangfeng, an analyst at Shanghai-based consultancy ISE.
“The market cannot grow at double-digit pace forever,” he said, adding that the slump in commercial vehicle sales might be caused by a slowing economy.
Sales growth for foreign brands has largely outstripped that of their Chinese counterparts, but local models sold at a faster rate in September, allowing a small increase in market share.
The market share of Chinese brands rose to 38.5 percent in September from 37.1 percent in August and was up 0.2 percentage points from a year earlier.
German brands held 19.8 percent of the market in September, Japanese brands had 14.9 percent, American brands 13.6 percent, South Korean brands 9 percent, and French brands 3.9 percent.
In comparison, General Motors Co said sales of GM brand vehicles by the company and its local partners rose 15.2 percent to 319,936 vehicles. The company said that was a record for September and the second-best month for sales this year.
That brought its sales for the year to almost 2.6 million vehicles, up 11.6 percent over the same period of last year. Also in September, GM and its joint venture partners surpassed 20 million in all-time sales in China, the company said.
Ford Motor Co said sales fell in September to 95,875 vehicles, while overall sales for the year through September rose 26 percent to 813,412 vehicles.
Nissan Motor Co, the biggest Japanese brand in China, said September sales fell about 21 percent over the same month of last year to 166,000 vehicles, although year-to-date sales kept steady growth.
German luxury brand BMW AG said its sales in China over the first nine months of this year rose 17.9 percent to 335,863 vehicles.
Daimler AG’s Mercedes Benz said its China sales jumped 30.5 percent in September.
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