China Automobile Trading Released Annual Report on China's Imported Automobile Market 2011

China Automobile Trading Co., Ltd., an affiliate of SINOMACH, recently released the “Annual Report on China’s Imported Automobile Market 2011” and offered in-depth professional analysis of the status of China’s imported automobile market in 2011. According to the report, the rapid growth of the Chinese automobile market over the past two years came to an end in 2011 due to factors such as slower growth of the macro economy, the phasing out of stimulus policies, and expanding scope of the “limited purchase” policies. The market growth rate has significantly declined. Given this background, however, the imported automobile market has maintained faster growth under the influence of factors such as upgrading consumption structure, increasingly versatile vehicle models, continuously decreasing displacements, and expanding networks. Statistics show that the cumulative imported automobiles through Chinese customs has reached 980, 000 units in 2011, up 30.1% from the previous year, and the number of cumulative registered automobiles has reached 820, 000, up 27% from the previous year. The report indicated that in the context of upgrading consumption and slowing growth, the Chinese imported automobile market has displayed clear trends of restructuring in terms of model, displacement, and brand structures. In terms of the models, SUV models further secured their market dominance. In 2011, SUV models, as the mainstream models in the imported automobile market, achieved remarkable market performance despite the adverse impact of the Japanese earthquake. As of October, the cumulative market share of SUVs had reached 55% which was significantly higher than 40% of passenger cars and 5% of MPVs. In terms of displacements, automobiles with displacement below 3.0L had accounted for nearly 80% of the market share. Benefiting from the adjusted automobile consumption tax policies and proactive responses of the multi-national manufacturers, the structure for imported products has been properly adjusted. From January to October 2011, the share of automobiles with displacement below 3.0L in the entire imported automobile market had reached 79%. There was significant growth in the 2.5-3.0L, below 1.5L and above 4.0L displacement intervals. The cumulative imported volume of automobiles within the 2.5-3.0L displacement interval was 257, 441 units, representing the largest market share at 32.3%. In terms of brands, import volume of luxurious brands grew rapidly. In the first 10 months of 2011, 6 of the top 15 imported brands grew by over 50% from the previous year, namely Audi, Land Rover, Volvo, Renault, Porsche, and Cadillac. Among these, five were luxury brands. Ranking data also indicated that 4 of the top 5 imported automobile sales volumes came from European brands, namely BMW, Benz, Audi, and Volkswagen, indicating further increases in the market share of European brands. According to the Chinese imported automobile market database, the market share of European brands had risen from 46% in 2009 to almost 60% today. Looking into 2012, the report indicated that despite continued slowdown in the macro economy, the Chinese automobile market would maintain positive growth driven by ordinary demands and upgrading consumption. With continued growth in the amount of new imported automobiles introduced, gradually declining displacements of imported automobiles, and expanding imported automobile networks, China’s imported automobile market will sustain stable growth in 2012 and the growth rate, like that of high-end domestic automobiles, will continue to surpass the average growth rate of domestic automobiles. However, it is expected that the restructuring will intensify even more. Source: sinomach.com.cn