January 17 (China Car Times) China maybe produced 18.27 million cars in 2009, but only 2.98% of that made it to foreign ownership according to statistics released by China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM).
China exported 544,900 units in 2010, a number that is disappointingly low when compared to other great automotive nations such as Japan, Germany and South Korea, and is also considerably lower than other developing auto markets such as India and Brazil.
The export volume of Germany in 2010 was 4.24 million units, and the export ratio was 76.29 percent. Japan exported 4.37 million vehicles from January to November last year. South Korea's export volume last year was of 2.77 million units. During 2010 Germany exported 4.24 million vehicles (76.29% of total production), Japan exported 4.37 million vehicles between January and November whilst Korea exported 2.77 million units in 2010.
Indian export volume has been sturdy even during the financial crisis. In the 2009-2010 fiscal year (between April 2009 and March 2010), the country had exported 1.8 million vehicles, growing at 17.90 percent year-on-year. The nation's officials predicted that the export volume in the fiscal year of 2010-2011 will rise 10 to 15 percent. The export ratio of India has surged on to 12.84 percent in the 2009-2010 fiscal year from the 6.63 percent in the 2003-2004 fiscal year. Even India managed to surf the financial hurdles of 2009 and early 2010, from April 2009 to March 2010 India cleared 1.8 million vehicles from its shores, gaining 17.90% in year on year growth, although it should be pointed out that SIAM (Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers) are (in)famous for their notoriously fuzzy car statistics that sometimes include motorbikes and three-wheeled trikes into total car sales.
Chinese exports in 2010 included 282,900 passenger cars whilst 261,900 commercial vehicles were also included. However China’s passenger vehicle exports only came to $1.66 billion USD whilst commercial vehicles accounted for $4.75 billion USD due to the average price of exported passenger vehicles sitting at $6,535USD, considerably lower than the $17,800 average for commercial vehicles.
Chinese car manufacturers have had serious problems with exporting their brands to overseas markets before, low up take in Europe can be blamed on ADAC crash tests which made Chinese cars a byword for poor quality and shoddy workmanship, however in the Middle East and Africa Chinese cars have been mostly welcomed in their first steps into the continents, only to have that favorable market entry quickly sour when dealers and importers were unable to follow up with parts and a decent level of service. 2011 is being ear marked as the 'year of the Chinese car' as with every other year, but due to the amount of over capacity in the Chinese market and the cancellation of favorable low tax rates for sub 1.6L cars Chinese manufacturers might just start looking at overseas markets now that the Chinese golden goose is starting to slow down its egg laying.
