GM posts 15% jump in China deliveries
Source: Bloomberg News |
August 7, 2012, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
GENERAL Motors Co, the biggest foreign automaker in China, said deliveries in the nation rose 15 percent last month, led by demand for its Wuling minivans.
Deliveries of cars and minivans rose to 199,503 units in July, according to a statement on the automaker's website yesterday. Sales at SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile Co, the venture that makes Wuling mini-commercial vehicles, climbed 27 percent to 98,694 units last month, according to the statement.
GM, outsold worldwide by Toyota Motor Corp in the first half, is increasingly counting on demand from China after US sales unexpectedly fell last month and losses from Europe widened. The automaker said this month it continues to gain market share in the world's biggest vehicle market amid intense competition and price cutting. Even so, a reliance on Wuling minivans could pressure GM's profit margins in China, according to industry researcher LMC Automotive.
"Wuling users are usually small business people or farmers," said John Zeng, an analyst at LMC Automotive in Shanghai. "The Wulings compete at a very low-end segment and they compete on price."
GM said on August 2 net income margins in China fell in the second quarter as a "significant" share of its sales growth came from less-profitable mini-commercial vehicles that include the Wuling minivan, whose retail price starts at 34,000 yuan (US$5,336).
For the first seven months, GM's total sales to dealerships rose 12 percent to 1.62 million units.
Deliveries of cars and minivans rose to 199,503 units in July, according to a statement on the automaker's website yesterday. Sales at SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile Co, the venture that makes Wuling mini-commercial vehicles, climbed 27 percent to 98,694 units last month, according to the statement.
GM, outsold worldwide by Toyota Motor Corp in the first half, is increasingly counting on demand from China after US sales unexpectedly fell last month and losses from Europe widened. The automaker said this month it continues to gain market share in the world's biggest vehicle market amid intense competition and price cutting. Even so, a reliance on Wuling minivans could pressure GM's profit margins in China, according to industry researcher LMC Automotive.
"Wuling users are usually small business people or farmers," said John Zeng, an analyst at LMC Automotive in Shanghai. "The Wulings compete at a very low-end segment and they compete on price."
GM said on August 2 net income margins in China fell in the second quarter as a "significant" share of its sales growth came from less-profitable mini-commercial vehicles that include the Wuling minivan, whose retail price starts at 34,000 yuan (US$5,336).
For the first seven months, GM's total sales to dealerships rose 12 percent to 1.62 million units.
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