China car sales surge 21%, Honda leads Japanese brand rebound

by **Cals** Sun 13 Oct 2013, 21:34

Published: Saturday October 12, 2013 MYT 12:00:00 AM
Updated: Saturday October 12, 2013 MYT 9:14:21 PM
China car sales surge 21%, Honda leads Japanese brand rebound

SHANGHAI: China’s passenger-vehicle sales rose 21% in September as Japanese carmakers rebounded from the consumer backlash sparked by a territorial dispute last year.
Wholesale deliveries of cars, multi-purpose and sport-utility vehicles climbed to 1.59 million units last month, the state-backed China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said yesterday. That compared with the 1.5 million-unit median estimate of five analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
Protests erupted across China last September after Japan moved to purchase a group of disputed islands – known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China – from their private owner. Japanese cars were vandalised and businesses attacked, and the ensuing slump in demand caused Toyota Motor Corp and Honda Motor Co to report their first annual sales declines on record in the world’s largest vehicle market.
“Last September was the peak of the anti-Japanese sentiment, so we are coming off a low base,” said Harry Chen, a Shenzhen-based analyst at Guotai Junan Securities Co. “The Japanese have improved a lot, but their recovery is still incomplete.”
Total sales of vehicles, including buses and trucks, gained 20% to 1.94 million units last month, the association said. In the first nine months of the year, 15.9 million vehicles were delivered, putting sales on track to reach the 20 million units for the full year estimated by the association.
Japan’s three biggest carmakers reported a surge in sales in China last month. Honda led the rebound as deliveries more than doubled from a year earlier to the highest in 21 months, according to company figures. Toyota’s deliveries climbed 63% and Nissan Motor Co’s sales, excluding multi-purpose vehicles, rose 83%.
General Motors Co, the largest foreign carmaker in China, reported sales growth accelerated in the country last month, helped by demand for its Wuling and Buick vehicles. Total sales in September climbed 14%, the Detroit-based company said Thursday.
Ford Motor Co’s sales in China jumped 61% last month to 96,111 vehicles.Volkswagen AG, Europe’s largest carmaker, boosted deliveries of its namesake-branded vehicles by 18% to 1.79 million, the company said in a statement.
Luxury brands continued to outpace industry sales last month. Audi, the top-selling luxury brand in China, surged 28% due to the popularity of its Q3 and Q5 SUVs.Daimler AG, maker of Mercedes-Benz vehicles, and Bayerische Motoren Werke AGeach reported a 21% gain in sales. – Bloomberg