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China auto sales up nearly 14% in 2013: industry
by Staff Writers
Shanghai (AFP) Jan 09, 2014


Volvo Cars sales up in 2013 thanks to Chinese market
Stockholm (AFP) Jan 09, 2014 - Volvo Cars, the Swedish subsidiary of Chinese automaker Geely, announced on Thursday a slight increase in its 2013 sales thanks to a spectacular growth in China.

The Asian country became Volvo's first market at the end of last year, during which the company sold 427,840 cars, 1.4 percent more than in 2012.

"After six consecutive months of growing sales we can report a great full-year performance exceeding last year's results," Volvo Cars Marketing, Sales and Customer Service executive Alain Visser said.

"Our China team has delivered fantastic growth and we will continue to expand our presence there."

The figures vary sharply from country to country.

In the United States, still Volvo Cars' strongest market for the entire 2013, sales were down by 10 percent compared to 2012.

The company hinted at a need to broaden the product range in the country.

"We have new products reaching US showrooms soon," Visser said.

In China, the 45.6 percent growth recorded in 2013 was distorted by an underestimation of sales in 2011 and an overestimation in 2012, detected by Volvo in the beginning of last year.

Last year, Volvo opened its second and third Chinese factories with the support of the China Development Bank.

In Sweden, its third largest market, Volvo Cars increased its market share to 20 percent, with sales up by 0.8 percent.

The company, which intended to return to operating at breakeven in 2013 after repeated losses since the second quarter of 2011, did not provide any profit figures.

Volvo Cars, acquired by Geely in 2010, is independent from truck maker Volvo Group since 1999.

China's auto sales smashed through the 20 million mark last year, growing nearly 14 percent and extending its lead as the world's biggest car market, an industry group said Thursday.

Sales in China, the world's biggest auto market since 2009, surged 13.9 percent to 21.98 million vehicles last year, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) said, as a recovery in Japanese brands offset the impact of slowing economic growth.

Passenger vehicle sales jumped 15.7 percent year-on-year to 17.93 million units, the group said in a statement.

China's huge auto market is critically important to foreign companies, which have looked to its vast potential to take up the slack from flagging sales in Europe, where French car sales hit a 15-year low in 2013 and German car sales also fell.

In the United States, total auto sales rose 7.6 percent to 15.6 million vehicles in 2013, according to Autodata, their best annual performance in years.

In 2012, Chinese auto sales had risen just 4.3 percent annually to 19.31 million vehicles, hurt by slowing domestic economic growth, limits on car numbers imposed by some cities to cut pollution and congestion, and a territorial row between Beijing and Tokyo that hit sales of Japanese-brand cars.

China's economy -- already the world's second largest -- registered its worst growth rate for 13 years in 2012, expanding at an annual rate of 7.7 percent.

Growth probably slipped further in 2013 to 7.6 percent, state media reported in December, just above the government's annual target of 7.5 percent.

But Japanese brands have continued to recover from the downturn in 2012, when political tensions grew over disputed islands in the East China Sea, causing some consumers to shun their Asian neighbour's products.

"Although the economic situation was bad in 2013, there were many catalysts for the car industry," said Cui Dongshu, deputy secretary general of the China Passenger Car Association, another industry group.

"There was strong demand for replacing old vehicles with new ones. Japanese brands also rebounded after their downturn in 2012 as domestic consumers have high regard for them," he told AFP.

In its figures, CAAM said sales of Japanese-brand passenger cars amounted to 2.93 million in 2013, but gave no percentage change.

In December alone, total vehicle sales in China -- both passenger and commercial -- rose 17.9 percent year-on-year to 2.13 million units, CAAM said.

Some foreign companies have already announced record China sales in 2013.

US auto giant General Motors sold 3.16 million vehicles in the country last year, up 11.4 percent from 2012.

"GM maintained good growth momentum in our company's largest market, despite a modest slowdown in demand for commercial vehicles," president of GM China, Matt Tsien, said in a statement on Tuesday.

Competitor Ford sold 935,813 vehicles in China last year, up 49 percent from 2012, as the US company introduced more new vehicles to the market.

But analysts said auto sales could slow this year from 2013.

"Surging sales are expected to see a slowdown as government restrictions curbing new vehicle sales are enforced across cities in China, as the levels of pollution hit record highs," IHS Automotive senior analyst Namrita Chow said in a recent report.

Last month, the northern city of Tianjin became the latest to limit cars by capping the number of licence plates it issues annually.

IHS forecasts passenger vehicle sales will rise around 10.4 percent this year.

Cui of the China Passenger Car Association forecasts vehicle sales will rise ten to 12 percent this year, as the one-off boost from the improvement for Japanese brands eases.

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Japan automakers accelerate China sales despite tensions
Tokyo (AFP) Jan 06, 2014
Two of Japan's top automakers Monday reported record sales in China last year, after an anti-Japanese consumer boycott depressed demand in the world's largest vehicle market in 2012. Toyota said it sold 917,500 vehicles in China last year, its best ever. The figure was up 9.2 percent from 2012, when a dispute over islands in the East China Sea flared anew and sent relations between Tokyo and ... read more


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