Japanese carmakers experience China sales drops

Honda Motor Co said that its China sales fell for the fourth straight month in October, a downtrend that led the Japanese carmaker to cut its full-year forecast for sales in the world's largest auto market by 10 percent.

Honda said it would revise its 2014 sales forecast for China down to about 800,000 vehicles from the around 900,000 vehicles previously forecast. It also said October sales had fallen nearly 6 percent year-on-year.

Sales growth in China's auto market will halve to 7 percent this year weighed down by a slowing economy, the head of China's automobile association has said.

Japanese auto brands have also been steadily losing market share in China to US and European brands over the past six years, according to the China Passenger Car Association, as they suffer from political tensions between the two countries.

Honda and its two Chinese joint ventures sold 70,802 vehicles in China in October, down 5.8 percent from a year earlier, after a 23.1 percent fall in September.

China-based spokesman Zhu Linjie attributed the decline to dealers clearing their inventory ahead of new launches.

Separately, Nissan Motor Co reported a slight increase in second-quarter profit on Tuesday, as record sales in the US dulled the impact of a slowdown in China.

Japan's No.2 automaker said operating profit reached 139.34 billion yen ($1.20 billion) in July-September.

Sales fell in each month in the quarter in China, and coupled with weakness in other emerging markets, Nissan had to lower its global sales forecast by 200,000 vehicles, the automaker said on Tuesday in its quarterly report.

"China's general market slowdown, particularly in the LCV (light commercial vehicle) segment hit the company," an executive said at an earnings briefing.

In contrast, generous incentives in the US helped Nissan to record second-quarter sales. That was followed by automakers reporting their strongest October sales in a decade thanks to increased consumer spending and lower gasoline prices.

Nissan also said robust sales in North America - its biggest market - helped offset weak demand in Japan where the consumer tax was raised in April, as well as uncertainty in Russia.