Car production and sales increase in March
China Association of Automobile Manufactures released the industry statistics of March on Friday, indicating that auto production and sales volume last month both amounted to over 1.4 million units, growing 4- and 3.6-fold month-on-month, respectively. However, affected by the virus outbreak, the figure saw a year-on-year decline, falling 44.5 percent and 43.3 percent, respectively.
In the first quarter of this year, vehicle production and sales volume reached 3.47 million and 3.67 million units, respectively, dropping 45.2 percent and 42.4 percent from the previous year.
From January to March this year, top 10 auto manufactures in China has sold nearly 3.3 million vehicles, which accounted for 89.7 percent of the total sales volume, falling 41.7 percent from a year earlier.
Shenwan Hongyuan Securities said in the first quarter of 2020, auto parts production upstream and vehicle manufacturing midstream were generally delayed by virus outbreak for two to three weeks, therefore the market demand also was affected, but there are already some positive signs of industry rebound in March. Nowadays, the risks mainly lie in the overseas automobile supply chain, which requires materials from different countries.
According to Huajin Securities, with government releasing multiple measures to boost economy recovery, including stabilizing domestic consumption, supporting new energy vehicle development and other monetary and fiscal policies, auto industry is projected to show significant improvement in the second quarter.