China's Nov passenger car sales down 15%

Shanghai, December 4 (Gasgoo.com) As a slowing domestic economy dented consumer confidence, China's passenger vehicle sales in November fell about 15% from one year earlier, Reuters quoted a research report of Nomura International as saying on Wednesday.

The drop was the second biggest year-on-year monthly plunge in the past four years. The world's second-largest auto market, China will see its passenger car sales continue to face difficulties in the first few months of next year because of fading consumer confidence and a possible slowdown in exports to emerging markets, the report said.

Nomura added that its earlier forecast of declining industry profits and operating margins in 2009 will prove increasingly realistic given a sharp decline in sales volume, worsening of product mix and possible severe price war.

In recent years China had seen more than 20% annual car sales growth, but the pace began to slacken off this year when a series of natural disasters (the snowstorms and earthquake), Olympics traffic controls and higher fuel prices hit the demand.

The slowing economy dealt a particularly heavy blow to the country's auto sector, with sales down 6.24% in August, posting a year-on-year monthly sales decline for the first time since early 2005.

China's official industry data about its passenger vehicle sales in November will be released in the next few days.