Ford sees fall in sales while GM posts gain
Print Edition
FORD Motor’s monthly vehicle sales in China recorded the largest decline in a year while General Motors’ sales growth returned to positive territory, clouding the outlook for the world’s biggest auto market amid an economic slowdown.
Ford’s 11 percent year-on-year sales decline in April, disclosed in a statement yesterday, was the biggest since the automaker began reporting monthly retail rather than wholesale data in May last year.
China’s auto sales growth ground to a near-standstill last year before rebounding thanks to a tax cut on small-engine vehicles that began in October and extends to the end of this year. It remains uncertain whether that momentum will continue as economic growth declines.
“China continues to be a dynamic marketplace as it transitions from an industrial economy to a consumer-led economy,” Ford said in an e-mailed statement, without elaborating on why its sales fell in April.
The sales drop extended Ford’s uneven start in 2016 after a 5 percent annual rise in March and 9 percent fall in February from a year earlier.
Meanwhile, GM said its China sales grew 7.5 percent in April compared with the same month in 2015, bouncing back amid a bevy of new model launches after a 0.6 percent sales decline in March.
GM’s Cadillac launched the XT5 crossover sport-utility vehicle in April, while Buick debuted an all-new LaCrosse sedan in March.
GM’s joint venture partner, SAIC Motor, said in an exchange filing yesterday that its sales added 6.9 percent year on year in April. SAIC also has a joint venture with Volkswagen, in addition to making cars under its own brand names.
Ford will idle a plant in Chongqing that produces Ecosport SUVs and Focus and Mondeo sedans for maintenance for the remainder of the second quarter, according to its statement. It didn’t make any link between the closure and the April sales fall.
The downtime will not affect Ford’s previously announced plan to produce 345,000 vehicles for the period in the Asia-Pacific, it said.
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