Auto sales set for 2-3% expansion in 2018

CHINA’S auto sales are set to grow 2 to 3 percent this year amid continuing weak market sentiment, Japanese investment bank Nomura said yesterday.

In 2017 China’s auto sales rose 3 percent to 28.88 million vehicles from a year ago to notch the slowest market growth since 2012, according to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. In 2018, the industry’s growth rate is set to slow further, Nomura said during its China Investor Forum held in Shanghai.

Benjamin Lo, head of China Auto Research at Nomura International (Hong Kong) Limited, attributed the lackluster industry growth to weak sales of sport-utility vehicles in third-tier and fourth-tier cities in China due to a weaker macroeconomic environment and car buyers not buying amid their limited budget.

The slower rise in SUV sales has hit the growth rate of China’s auto industry in general.

In the first seven months of this year, sales of SUVs climbed 7.3 percent year on year to 5.59 million units but the growth slowed from the 17 percent increase one year ago when 5.21 million SUVs were sold, according to the data from China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

But as SUV sales weakened, the sedan segment grew healthily from a year ago. From January to July, sales of sedans climbed 4.6 percent year on year to 6.5 million units. In the first seven months of 2017, sedan sales shed 2.8 percent.

China’s auto sales reversed 4 percent in July from a year earlier to 1.89 million vehicles compared with a 4.8 percent rise in June and 9.6 percent growth in May.