China’s vehicle sales jumped 32 percent last year as government stimulus measures and economic growth helped the nation stay the world’s largest auto market for a second year.
Total auto sales, which include cars, trucks and buses, rose to 18.06 million, while passenger-car deliveries gained 33 percent to 13.8 million, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said yesterday.
Sales of cars and light trucks in the US gained 11 percent to 11.6 million in 2010, according to researcher Autodata Corp.
China’s annual vehicle sales jumped about 10-fold in the past decade as rising affluence and government stimulus boosted demand.
However, the pace of growth may slow this year after the government withdrew tax breaks and rural subsidies that helped it overtake the US auto market, said Jenny Gu, an analyst at J.D. Power & Associates.
“The pace of sales growth in the past two years was abnormal and driven by government policies,” Shanghai-based Gu said. “With the removal of those incentives, passenger-car growth may fall to about 10 percent a year during the next four years.”
China’s automobile sales may increase 10 to 15 percent this year, the Chinese auto association said
Total vehicle sales rose 17.9 percent to 1.67 million units last month, with passenger-car sales increasing 18.6 percent to 1.3 million units, the association said.
It predicted that growth this year would be about 10 to 15 percent.
China’s total auto sales may reach 20 million this year, Booz & Co and Nomura Holdings Inc said.
In contrast, light-vehicle sales in the US may be as much as 12.8 million units, said Ashvin Chotai, the London-based managing director of Intelligence Asia Automotive.
US light vehicle sales peaked in 2000, with annual deliveries of 17.4 million vehicles.
The pace of growth in China may fluctuate in the first quarter, association deputy secretary general Gu Xianghua told reporters in Beijing yesterday.
More cities may follow Beijing’s example and impose restrictions on car ownership to curb traffic congestion, he said.
China this month raised the sales tax on vehicles with engines of 1.6 liters or smaller to 10 percent, from 7.5 percent last year. Subsidies given for trade-in vehicles and to rural residents to buy vehicles were also phased out.
Chinese carmakers will face “pretty big difficulties” this year after the government scrapped stimulus measures, association vice chairman Dong Yang said.
While Chinese automakers that gained the most from state subsidies may experience slower growth this year, General Motors Co and Volkswagen AG — the two largest foreign automakers in the country — may benefit because they sell a wider range of vehicles, said Klaus Paur, China managing director of automotive consultant Synovate Motoresearch in Shanghai.
More expensive models from overseas carmakers will also experience growing demand, he said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last