Imported vehicle market stays slow in the first half of year

Wang Cun, Senior Manager of Marketing and Sales Department, Sinomach Automobile Co. Ltd, said on the 2016 China Auto Market Development Trend Forum that, imported vehicles and super-luxury vehicles are performedagainst the market trend in the first half of year, with the sales volume of imported vehicles decreasing 9.35% and super-luxury vehicles declining more than 20%. Only parallel-import vehicles keep growth.

Imported vehicle market is mainly influenced by localization

Currently, data from CAAM shows that the production and sales volume of auto are 12.89m and 12.83m units respectively, increasing 6.5% and 8.1% with the same period of last year. SUVs and alternative energy vehicles keep high growths.

The total imported vehicles are 384,000 units from January to May this year, decreasing 12.3%. Wang Cun points out that, “The supply of imported vehicles is declining for consecutive six quarters.”But he expects no more intense adjustments in the latter half of year. Wang Cun believes that the market recession is caused by the “new normal”economyand continuous influences brought by the localization of imported vehicles. He points that 4% of market sales are localized and more imported vehicles will be achieve localization in the first half of year, represented by Cadillac SRX. Although more imported products will be introduced, the new models are mainly supplementing the market and producing little effects in making up the declining sales volume.

Deepening brand adjustments

Data shows that BMW and Benz have growths of 9.6% and 9% respectively in the first half of year, ranking the top 2 brands and followed by Lexus with an increase of 49.3%. Wang Cun points out that the brand adjustments are continuously deepening. BMW, Benz and Lexus rank top 3 in terms of sales volume, while Porsche, Volkswagen, Audi and Subaru all have rising ranks.

Parallel-import vehicles facing high growth A series of favorable policies promote the growthof parallel-import vehicle market in the first half of year. The volume of parallel-import vehicles reaches 54,548 units, increasing 9.15%, higher than the average 12.3% decline of import vehicle market. SUVs are the mainstreammodels of parallel-import vehicles, accounting for nearly 90% of the market share. Toyota, Land Rover and Benz rank top 3 brands in terms of imported volume, comprising 81% of the total. Wang Cun points out that the parallel-import vehicles are changing from large-size models to small-size or cheaper vehicles.