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China’s auto import in July almost halved, parallel import takes severe hit

Abigail From Gasgoo| September 23 , 2019 23:32 BJT

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Imported vehicles in July

China’s imported car market is stagnant while its domestic automotive industry goes cool. The figure from Sinomach Automobile Co., LTD shows that around 90,000 cars were imported into China in July, 2019, a year-on-year slump of 49%. The number for the first seven months approached 620,000 units, a decline of 1.6%.     

Last July, the car imports soared because the tariff rate of finished automobiles was lowered. Compared with that, the number of imported vehicles this July is nearly cut down half.

The almost halved car imports was partly attributed to the relatively large base number for the same period a year ago, which resulted from a tariff slash on complete vehicles.

Nearly half imported car brands post decrease  

The figure shows that only Lexus and Lincoln’s imports saw growth.

However, Lincoln is facing challenges. On August 23, the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council decided to resume the additional levy of 25% and 5% tariffs on vehicles and auto-components made in the U.S. since December 15, 2019. It means Lincoln will pay up to 40% tariff, which will make it more difficult to boost its sales in China.       

With around 17,000 vehicles sold in China last month, Lexus posted a 4.3% year-on-year decrease. It is difficult to say whether Lexus can maintain its previous high growth rate after lifting prices.

Apart from Lincoln and Lexus, July imports of BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi and Porsche slumped by over 40% from the year-ago period.   

In addition, China’s sales of imported vehicles approached 66,000 units in July, a year-on-year decline of 7%, according to Sinomach Automobile. Sales of nearly half brands slid except Lexus, Porsche, Volkswagen’s imported cars and Jeep. 

China’s auto import in July almost halved, parallel import takes severe hit

(Photo source: Lincoln)

Automobile parallel imports suffer the most

In July, auto parallel imports in China slumped 61.2% from a year ago to roughly 10,000 units, said Sinomach Automobile. The steep drop partly resulted from the higher base number for July, 2018. Besides, it also failed to meet the China Ⅵ emission standard that had been implemented by many regions from July 1.

However, the Jan.-Jul. auto parallel import volume still increased 16.5% year on year to around 100,000 units, accounting for 16.2% of total imported car volume.

In July, parallel import cars have the largest decline of 61.2% with the imports of 10,000 units in the imported car market according to Sinomach Automobile. This results from the high base in last July and China-Ⅵ emission standards implemented in part of regions this July that parallel import cars are not able to meet. However, the figure from Sinomach Automobile suggests the overall imports in the first seven months increased 3.6 percentage points over the all year of 2018.  

SUV still dominated the auto parallel import market with a share of 85% for the first seven months, remaining flat over the year-ago period. Moreover, 11% of share occupied by MPVs, an increase of 3 percentage points.


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