China Nov car sales drop 10% as slump spreads

China's November car sales plunged 10 percent, the biggest decline in more than three years, extending a global rout in auto demand that has caused carmakers to seek government support.

Sales dropped for the third month in four, sinking to 522,800 cars, sport-utility and multipurpose vehicles, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said in an e-mailed statement today. Before August, there hadn't been a decrease for more than three years.

Dwindling sales in China, the world's second-biggest auto market, add to the strain on automakers already wrestling with plunging demand in the U.S., Europe, Japan, Brazil and India. General Motor Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC are seeking as much as $34 billion in U.S. aid to survive.

"We're heading into the worst automotive recession since World War II, and that will also drag down growth markets, including China," said Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, director of the Center for Automotive Research at the University of Duisburg- Essen, Germany. "The decline in China means the problems for GM will get bigger and it will force Volkswagen to react."

GM Sales

GM, the biggest overseas automaker in China, is counting on emerging markets and a U.S. government bailout to help it weather a plunge in North American sales. The automaker aims to boost China sales to 1.2 million next year, 9.1 percent more than this year's target, Kevin Wale, president of the carmaker's China unit, said in a Bloomberg TV interview aired today. The tally this year may rise 6.8 percent to 1.1 million.

In the first 11 months, China's industrywide car sales climbed 8.9 percent to 6.2 million. That compares with a 16 percent decline in the U.S. The European market slipped 5.4 percent in the first 10 months.

Emerging-market auto sales are also slumping as the effects of the global recession spreads. Brazil’s tally tumbled 25 percent in November, the most in at least six years, causing the local automakers' association to cut its full-year forecast and warn of little growth next year. Indian car sales fell 6.6 percent in October.

Vehicle deliveries in China may fall short of a 10 million unit forecast this year, as slowing economic growth undermines consumers' purchasing power, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. The industry's consensus for growth next year is 5 percent to 10 percent, compared with a 22 percent gain in 2007.

Chinese automakers including Guangzhou Automobile Group Co., a Chinese partner of Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co., have called on the government to take steps to help local manufacturers. Canada, the U.K. and Germany have also had requests for help from their national auto industries.

Following is a table of China's top 10 carmakers in November and their sales total.

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No.       Automaker                     Sales
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1.     FAW-Volkswagen Automotive Co.    43,508
2.     Shanghai Volkswagen Co.          38,254
3.     Dongfeng Motor Co.               28,190
4.     Shanghai General Motors Co.      32,300
5.     Tianjin FAW Toyota Motor Co.     23,501
6.     BYD Co. Ltd.                     21,779
7.     Beijing Hyundai Motor Co.        20,855
8.     Guangzhou Honda Automobile Co.   20,511
9.     Chery Automobile Co.             19,685
10.    Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd.   17,202
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Source: China Association of Automobile Manufacturers