Auto market increases, local brands share falls in Feb

China's auto market saw a stable increase in February with 1.64 million vehicles produced and 1.6 million vehicles sold but domestic brands witnessed a falling market share, according to data released by China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) Monday.

In February, auto production in China increased 21.53 percent year-on-year and auto sales grew 17.84 percent over the same period last year, according to CAAM.

Production and sales in February were lower than in January due to the Spring Festival holidays, Dong Yang, secretary-general of CAAM, said at a press conference, noting the auto sales in the first two month of this year showed stable growth for the Chinese market. The Spring Festival holidays started on January 31 this year and lasted a week.

In January and February, 3.67 million vehicles were produced and 3.75 million vehicles were sold, with year-on-year increases of 11.38 percent and 10.73 percent respectively, according to data released by the CAAM.

The sales data of the first two months is satisfactory, but the sales of Chinese brands continued to drop, which should be a concern, Dong said.

A total of 503,700 Chinese brand passenger vehicles were sold in February in China, with a 5.39 percent increase year-on-year, but its market share was 38.39 percent, 4.6 percentage points lower than the same period last year, according to data from the CAAM.

Chinese brands began to see market share drops from last September, showing the gap between Chinese and overseas manufacturers, said Dong.

The sales of Chinese brands differ, Jia Xinguang, managing director of the China Automobile Dealers Association, told the Global Times Monday.

Some leading Chinese brands, including BYD and Geely, have performed quite well in the market, but some other brands are in a difficult situation, Jia said.

SAIC Motor Corp, Chongqing Chang'an Automobile Co and Dongfeng Motor Group took the top three positions in the sales rankings of Chinese brands for January and February, according to data from the CAAM.

The coming years will not be easy for Chinese brands since joint ventures in the industry are reducing prices of their cars and big cities like Beijing are curbing the number of vehicles, Jia said.