Chinese automobile sales exceed 1.62m units in September, own brands experience positive sales growth

Gasgoo.com (Shanghai October 17) - 1.62 million vehicles were sold in China in September, jfdaily.com reported today, citing figures from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. The number is 8.2 percent higher than the previous month's figure and 1.8 percent lower than last September's. 1.66 million vehicles were manufactured during the month, 10.6 percent higher than last month and 3.7 percent higher than last September's.

CAAM analysts attribute the year-on-year sales decline in September to the poor performance of Japanese automobile manufacturers. Decreasing sales of commercial vehicles was also cited as a key factor.

Total vehicle sales and production numbers for the first nine months of the year totaled 14.09 million units and 14.13 million units. The two figures represented year-on-year growth of 3.4 percent and five percent, respectively.

Passenger automobiles accounted for 1.32 million of all vehicles sold in September and 1.35 million of those all those manufactured. Passenger automobile sales slipped 0.3 percent from last September to this September. SUVs were the only vehicle type whose sales experienced positive year-on-year growth.

Commercial vehicle sales in September totaled 301,800 units, increasing 9.2 percent from the previous month but falling 7.6 percent from the previous year. A total of 2.82 million commercial vehicles were sold in the country over the first three quarters of the year.

However, September proved a good month for domestic own brand manufacturers, whose passenger automobile sales totaled 561,900 units, growing 26.6 percent from the previous month and 7.5 percent from the previous year. Domestic manufacturers held a 42.7 percent share in the passenger automobile market. Own brand sedans constituted 281,100 of those sales, and made up 30.3 percent of all sedans sold in the country. Own brand manufacturers' share in the sedan market has increased 6.8 percent from August and 3.2 percent from last September.

A total of 4.57 million own brand passenger automobiles have been sold from January to September, representing year-on-year growth of 2.6 percent. The growth rate is slightly less than the industry average of 4.3 percent. 2.09 million own brand sedans were sold over the nine month period, constituting 26.9 percent of all sedans sold in the country.

By comparison, sales of Japanese branded passenger automobiles fell a full 39.3 percent from September 2011 to September 2012.