CAAM predicts that Chinese automotive market will fail to achieve predicted annual sales growth of 7%

Growth in the Chinese automotive market has been slowing down to new lows. A China Association of Automobile Manufacturers report on the automobile market in April shows that monthly sales growth this year has slowed down noticeably from last year, while inventory levels have risen sharply. The CAAM believes that earlier 2015 sales growth predictions of 7% are no longer realistic. The CAAM has decided to take the rare action of reassessing annual sales growth predictions this month.

According to CAAM statistics, a respective totals of 2.07 million automobiles and 1.99 million automobiles have been sold during the month of April. The two figures represent respective decreases of 8.9% and 11% from the previous month. Sales figures are down 0.5% from the previous year.

The commercial vehicle market in particular has suffered particularly this month, with production and sales volumes falling 8.3% and 12% from the previous month and 18.6% and 17.6% from the previous year, respectively. By comparison, the passenger automobile market has performed much better. While production and sales numbers for sedans have fallen by a large margin, the SUV and minivan segments continue to perform strongly.

CAAM Deputy Secretary General Yao Jie points out that the highest production and sales numbers are typically recorded in March, while the month of April represents a relative decline. While the fact that Lunar New Year came earlier this year means that this peak should have occurred later, that doesn’t seem to have been the case so far.

According to earlier CAAM predictions, the Chinese automobile market would be able to sustain total growth of 7% over the course of this year, meaning that production and sales numbers would reach 250 million units. However, growth rates for the period of time from January to April paint a totally different picture. Production and sales volumes for the four month period totaled 8.28 million units and 8.14 million units, representing year-on-year growth rates of 4.1 percent and 2.8 percent, respectively.

Commenting on CAAM’s decision to reassess annual growth rates this month, Jia Xinguang, noted industry expert, remarked that such a decision “has not occurred often in the past and may be a sign of the intense pressure the domestic automotive market is facing this year.”