China's auto market enters "adjustment period"

“For the Chinese auto market this year, everyone is comparing the growth momentum between last year and the previous year. It seems that sales are always going towards a higher growth rate. But I think it's normal for the market to rise and fall.”

Talking about China's auto market this year, Chen Fangming, head of the public relations department of Geely Holding Group, which acquired Volvo Car Corporation, is on Xinhua in the 8th China (Changchun) International Automobile Expo that is being held in Changchun City, Jilin, China. Agency reporter said.

Statistics show that in the first half of the year, China's domestic automobile production and sales totaled 9.156 million vehicles and 9.3252 million vehicles, an increase of 2.48% and 3.35% year-on-year.

In April of this year, domestic automobile production and sales experienced a negative monthly growth for the first time in 27 months, which was a double-on-year decline in May and a slight improvement in June. Experts believe that China's auto production and sales have experienced rapid growth over the past two years, and now it has begun to enter a stable "adjustment period."

This adjustment period is the result of a combination of policy and market, international and domestic factors.

Changchun Huitong Automobile Trading Co., Ltd. is one of Changan Automobile's two service centers in Changchun. Dong Kai, deputy general manager of the company, told reporters at the Changchun Automobile Expo that the reasons for the decline in China's auto sales growth this year One of them is that the country’s preferential policies for car consumption have been shut down, and it has changed from “strong support” to “moderate restriction” two years ago.

Ji Jun, an expert from the Jilin Academy of Social Sciences, said that at the beginning of 2011, Beijing was the first to introduce restrictive policies for car consumption to “block and maintain security.” Afterwards, various localities began to consider introducing restrictive policies for car consumption, together with incentives. With the cancellation of the policy, the Chinese automobile market suddenly felt somewhat cool.

According to the decisions of the Ministry of Finance of China and the State Administration of Taxation, the preferential policies for the reduction of vehicle purchase tax at a rate of 7.5% for passenger cars with a displacement of 1.6L and below, and the policies for automobile replacement for cars to the countryside expire on December 31, 2010. Stop execution afterwards.

According to industry analysts, the current domestic auto market is mainly characterized by: The selling of joint venture vehicles sells their own cars. Among them, the sales of joint venture brands in cars are better than those of their own brands, and the high-end models in joint ventures are still out of stock.

Jiang Jun said that the vast majority of self-owned brands are cars under 1.6L. The cancellation of purchase tax preferences has the greatest impact on them, and the independent brands have ushered in a difficult year.

General Motors (China) statistics show that General Motors and its joint ventures in China continue to maintain a good sales momentum. In the first six months, a total of 1,273,500 vehicles were sold, and the monthly sales in June reached 193,900, both set a record high . Shanghai General Motors China's domestic sales reached 600,000 units, a 25% increase year-on-year. The data released by Ford China also shows that in the first half of this year, Ford Motor China sales increased by 14% year-on-year to 274,500 vehicles.

In terms of independent brands in China, sales of a small number of companies such as Great Wall Motors, Jianghuai Automobiles, and Geely Automobile increased slightly, and sales of Chery, Brilliance, and Zhongtai declined to a certain extent.

Yu Tiantian, director of the Research Department of Jilin North Automobile Industry Information Development Co., Ltd., believes that in the current situation, China's own brand cars are facing multiple challenges.

“In multiple cities this year, 'blocking', the threshold for new car purchases has increased substantially. Taking into account the cost of vehicle purchases and renewal, consumers will be more rational in their purchase of cars and the speed of vehicle renewal will be slowed down. In this way, one car will be selected in one step. The car, or choosing a used car with higher cost performance, will become the choice of more consumers, which will exclude the vast majority of independent brands." Yu Tiantian said.

Some experts believe that under the support of rigid demand, the Chinese auto market is expected to show a steady upward trend in the future, while auto companies, especially self-owned brand companies, are taking measures to transform and actively respond to market changes. Many companies recognize that they should avoid continuing blind expansion of production capacity and over-emphasis on price wars.

Zhang Tong, deputy director of the New Energy Automotive Engineering Center at Tongji University, said that the Chinese auto market last year and last year maintained a 40% to 50% growth rate. Many companies' decisions are based on this trend. Now it is time to make adjustments. . Enterprises should shift more attention from vehicle production to good service, quality, and philosophy.

Chen Fangming said that the first strategic transformation of Geely Group is not to fight the price war, not relying on simple price competition, but through the upgrading of quality and technical services, increase the added value and cost-effectiveness of products, and enhance brand premium capabilities.

Geely Group achieved a 5% increase in sales in the first half of this year, and it is among the few independent Chinese brands whose sales have continued to grow. Chen Fangming said that one of the experiences of Geely Group on development is that when planning a development route, it is not only necessary to look at the immediate future, but also to focus on the long-term. To this end, Geely acquired Volvo Cars and the world’s second largest automatic transmission plant in Australia to improve the technical content and quality of its products.

Dong Yang, executive vice president and secretary-general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, analyzed that the Chinese auto market has entered a period of steady development from a period of rapid growth, and it is expected that the domestic automobile production and sales situation in the second half of the year may be better than the first half of the year. It grew by about 5% last year.