Local government to support Chery, Jianghuai

Shanghai, November 14 (Gasgoo.com) The auto industry of Eastern China's Anhui province, home to Chery Auto and Jianghuai Auto, are suffering from the throes of free fall in vehicle output and sales. In an effort to ease their pain, the province has decided to take active funding and purchasing measures to support the two automakers and boost the province's auto industry, said xinhuanet.com today.

Latest data from Anhui's industry regulator show that in September the vehicle manufacturing in the province fell by 14.6% from one year earlier, and its automakers only made 42,000 vehicles in the month, down by 36.3% year on year. The production and sales of some famous vehicle brands and models in the province have both fallen over the past few months.

The output of Chery Auto began to drop considerably in July and the fall accelerated in September. Jianghuai Auto has seen its production of various chassis decreasing each month since April -- down from 25,715 in April to 13,364 in September.

Meanwhile, the small- and medium-size manufacturers of components for motor vehicles and engineering machinery saw their output values in July decrease by 200 million yuan ($29.3 million) from the previous month, and they had a month-month drop of the same amount again in August.

The sluggish auto sales and falling output have urged the Anhui provincial government to take positive measures to help its automakers weather the crisis. The province will boost its funding and purchasing support for Chery and Jianghuai, whose new cars will be the priority choices for auto buying of the province's local governments at all levels.