Over 23m vehicles sold in China last year but annual rise halved
Print Edition
CHINA’S auto sales exceeded 23 million vehicles last year, an industry group said yesterday, but annual growth halved from 2013 as a weaker economy took its toll on the world’s biggest car market.
Sales rose 6.9 percent, or 1.51 million vehicles, to 23.49 million, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said.
That was short of an 8.3 percent growth target given by CAAM in July, itself a cut from an earlier forecast of 10 percent, Bloomberg News reported.
In 2013, sales surged 13.9 percent to 21.98 million vehicles, helped by a recovery in Japanese brands that were earlier hurt by a political row between Beijing and Tokyo.
CAAM described 2014 sales as “stable” in a statement.
“Faced with a complex international environment and the arduous task of domestic reform, development and stability, the auto sector ... achieved sound development,” it said.
China’s economic growth eased to 7.3 percent in the July-September period, the worst quarter since the depths of the global crisis in early 2009, as policy-makers accept slower expansion to carry out structural reforms.
At least seven cities have slapped limits on vehicle numbers to cut congestion and pollution, including Shenzhen, which just unveiled a new policy to issue only 100,000 licence plates annually.
But China remained the world’s biggest auto market last year, a title it has held since 2009, well ahead of the United States.
Industry consultant Autodata has estimated total US sales last year of 16.5 million units, up 5.9 percent from 2013.
China’s passenger car sales, which account for the bulk of the market, rose a stronger 9.9 percent to 19.7 million vehicles in 2014, CAAM said.
“The performance of the passenger car sector was within expectations, and the slower overall growth is mainly due to a decline in sales of commercial vehicles,” said John Zeng, general manager of LMC Automotive Consulting in Shanghai.
For 2015, passenger car sales were likely to maintain “relatively high” growth of 9-10 percent, but an economic slowdown and stricter emission regulations will hurt overall vehicle sales, Zeng said.
He forecast overall auto sales growth of 7.2 percent for this year, nearly flat from 2014.
Foreign automakers in China outpaced the overall market, with Germany’s Volkswagen as well as General Motors and Ford of the United States all reporting record sales for last year.
VW delivered 3.67 million cars to customers in China in 2014, up 12.4 percent, the company said on Sunday, despite recalling more than 500,000 of its vehicles.
GM sold 3.54 million vehicles in China, up 12 percent from the previous high in 2013, it said last week.
Ford sold 1.11 million vehicles in China in 2014, up 19 percent from 2013, the company said.
CAAM said the market share of Chinese companies for passenger cars alone fell 2.1 percentage points in 2014.
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