NBS:China’s Auto Industry Hits New High

According to the latest figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics（NBS）, the industrial added value growth in China transportation equipment manufacturing industry accelerated to 25.9 percent in year-on-year (y/y) terms in September and the first 9 months of this year has seen an a rise of 13.6 percent year-on-year (y/y), growth-leading the nine key industries including ferrous metals industry, general equipment industry, etc. Substantial increase in industrial added value shows continued recovery in the industry this year, the momentum of recovery has gained much speed in September.

In the transportation equipment manufacturing industry, the economy of automotive industry rebounded quickly this year to become an impetus for the pick-up of the transportation equipment manufacturing industry. After breaking 1 million in both auto production and sales volumes in March and a steady performance for 4 consecutive months around 1.1 million, it reached record highs in September by surpassing 1.3 million.

Specifically, in September automobile sales in China exceeded market expectations by hitting a record high of selling above 1 million passenger cars a month, up 83.62% y/y, expanding growth of 18.27% on month-on-month; commercial vehicle sales reached 316.7 thousand, increased by 61.67% y/y, 13.03% on month-on-month. Passenger cars below 1.6-liter small-displacement are still best sellers in auto market, whose increasing speed is also steadily on top in September; it is noteworthy that, following the August growth rate on month-on-month surpassing the small-displacement passenger cars, passenger cars with displacement of 2.5-3.0 liters speed up in sales volume with the quickest increasing rate on month-on-month basis in passenger cars of all emission displacements.

Thus, as the economy continues to recover, car demand of the citizens is growing continuously. Those low-emission passenger cars with low-cost and preferential policies are most attractive and their future market is expected to be continuously hot; at the same time, the economic upturn also stimulated the recovery of vehicle replacement demand of those vehicle owners to change a new vehicle, which directly and significantly warmed the high-end passenger car market.

From the perspective of prices, circulation index of car prices rose steadily in the third quarter y/y, while the main raw materials such as hot-rolled and cold-rolled sheets showed declines, which indicates that excellent and steady performance has been made in first 3 quarters this year. With future market performance to be revealed gradually, the uprising marketing is expected to be off again. At the same time, as a long chain industry, a strong recovery of automobile industry will bring continuously improved demand for industries such as steel, glass, chemical and so on to contribute to a continuous overall economy recovery. (Translator:Jianfei/Wendy)

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