Auto industry sees Feb. sales drop

Hard times set to continue for domestic brands

China's auto industry saw total sales drop by 0.22 percent to 1.59 million units in February, the first year-on-year drop in two years, data from an industry association showed Tuesday.

Sales of passenger cars increased 6.42 percent year-on-year to 1.4 million units in February but sales of commercial vehicles dropped 30.85 percent to 196,600 units last month, according to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM).

The CAAM predicted in January that auto sales in China would increase by around 7 percent in 2015, roughly equal to the 2014 growth rate of 6.9 percent.

"It is not very likely that China's auto market will repeat the previous double-digit growth, as the overall economy is slowing down," Beijing-based independent analyst Zhang Zhiyong told the Global Times on Tuesday. "The 2015 auto sales growth could even be lower than 7 percent."

New-energy cars continued to see strong sales in February, with the government and the public now attaching greater importance to the environment. Total sales of new-energy cars reached 6,045 units in February - three times that in the same period of 2014, the CAAM data showed.

A statement from the CAAM said that the market share of China's homegrown sedan brands dropped slightly in February, but it did not specify by how much. Homegrown brands' market share was 23.39 percent in January, down 0.35 percentage points from the same period in 2014, according to the CAAM.

Dong Yang, secretary-general of the CAAM, said in January that homegrown brands' market share may drop further during 2015, media reports said.

Some domestic listed automakers reported weaker financial performance in 2014, given the overall industry slowdown and rising competition from joint venture carmakers.

Great Wall Motors, a leading ­domestic automaker, said in a statement in January that its net profit in 2014 dropped 2.09 percent year-on-year to 8.05 billion yuan, and its sales also ­declined by 3 percent to 730,800 units.

Shenzhen-based electric-car maker BYD Co said in a performance forecast in February 2015 that its net profit for 2014 was expected to have dropped by 20.82 percent to 438 million yuan. Despite that, sales of new-energy cars surged in 2014, and analysts said that weak performance in sales of BYD's traditional fuel cars was the major reason behind the profit drop.

Automakers that have joint venture factories with foreign auto brands are having a better time, as Chinese consumers generally still prefer to buy foreign auto brands.

Changan Automobile, which operates a joint venture with Ford, said in a performance forecast in January 2015 that its net profit for 2014 would grow by 111 percent to 122 percent.

SAIC Motor, which operates joint ventures with Volkswagen and General Motors, also said last month that its 2014 net profit is expected to have grown by 12 percent.

Experts said that homegrown auto brands will continue to have a tough time in the future, and some of them may shut down.

"But several strong domestic brands will survive the competition, and those companies will represent the future of China's auto industry," Shi Jie, editor-in-chief of industry information portal auto.gasgoo.com, told the Global Times Tuesday.

Shi noted that China's homegrown brands have already made significant progress.

Domestic automakers, even those with joint ventures with foreign brands, have been stepping up efforts to produce self-developed cars. Changan Automobile's CS 75 and Eado saw strong sales in 2014, helping to boost profits, the company said in its performance report in January 2015.