Chinese Car Sales Slowest in a Decade

Having heard about the rough ride Western car markets had in 2008, spare a thought for the booming Chinese market. In 2008 5,326,308 cars were sold into the Chinese market, up 6.7 per cent year-on-year. While carmakers selling into European markets would be over the moon with full-year growth of 6.7 per cent, this the lowest year-on-year growth reported in China for a decade. And what’s more in the month of December passenger sales actually fell 5.7 per cent year-on-year to 545,179 units in December.

According to Morgan Stanley’s Chinese automotive market analyst, this is mainly due to production cuts at the key OEMs. It could also signal that the emerging market’s rapid growth rate has peaked: “Although more supportive policy from the government may be implemented soon, such as purchase tax and consumption tax cut, weak car demand sentiment and consumer confidence are not easy to revive amid a slowing economy, in our view,” Morgan Stanley’s Kate Zhu said in an investor’s note.