The production and sales in March exceeded 1.4 million units-

Automobile consumer market recovers significantly

Our reporter Liu Jin

On April 10, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers released data showing that China's automobile production and sales in March were significantly higher than the previous month. The decline in automobile production and sales narrowed, the decline in passenger vehicle production and sales remained large, and the decline in commercial vehicles was more obvious.

Specifically, in March, automobile production and sales exceeded 1.4 million units, respectively reaching 1.422 million units and 1.403 million units, which was a 4.0-fold and 3.6-fold increase from the previous month, down 44.5% and 43.3% year-on-year, and the decline was significantly narrower than that in February.

In March, the production and sales performance of new energy vehicles was also significantly better than last month, with production and sales of 50,000 and 53,000 vehicles respectively, up 3.8 times and 3.0 times from the previous month, down 56.9% and 53.3% year-on-year.

"As the industry's orderly resumption of production and production has accelerated, the production and sales volume of automobiles in March rebounded significantly, but the year-on-year decline is still relatively rapid, and the negative impact of the epidemic continues." Xu Haidong, deputy chief engineer of the China Automobile Association said.

According to Xu Haidong, in March, as the new pneumonia epidemic situation was effectively controlled in China, the company's production and operation gradually resumed. On the production side, the situation of the company's resumption of production and production has improved significantly. According to the latest statistics on the resumption of production and recovery of the 23 enterprise groups controlled by the China Automobile Industry Association, the vehicle production base has been fully resumed, the return rate of employees is 86%, and the resumption of production reached the average of last year. 75% of the level. On the consumer side, since the epidemic has not completely ended, some market demand is still being suppressed, but corporate sales in March have been significantly better than in February. With the gradual implementation of relevant national policies, and the successive introduction of policies to promote automobile consumption by various local governments, the automobile market will accelerate recovery.

"The current main contradiction is reflected in the urgent need to restore and boost the domestic automobile consumer market." Xu Haidong said that the epidemic has caused a huge impact on domestic transportation, tourism, catering, retail, manufacturing and other industries. The data shows that the forced closure of small and medium-sized enterprises in many industries has seriously affected the income of employees, resulting in impaired automobile consumption capacity.

On the other hand, with the outbreak of the epidemic in Europe and the United States, the export of our labor-intensive products abroad has dropped significantly. In the first two months, denominated in US dollars, China's exports of mechanical and electrical products were US $ 172.056 billion, down 16.2%. In the same period, in terms of traditional labor-intensive products, apparel exports, textile exports, plastic products exports, and furniture exports all declined by about 20%. With the intensification of overseas epidemics, export-oriented export companies faced a three-month to six-month shutdown. The decline in employee income will also affect automobile consumption.

At the same time, the overseas automobile consumer market was also affected by the epidemic, and the export of Chinese brands of automobiles and parts was blocked. From a global perspective, many foreign forecasting agencies have significantly reduced their sales in the global auto market in 2020. However, the European Automobile Manufacturers Association has proposed that some preparations should be made to stimulate the recovery of the automotive industry.

Xu Haidong said that in order to boost car consumption, the relevant departments and 20 provinces have introduced respective supporting policies. These policies specifically for car consumption will bring many benefits, but the specific effect is not easy to determine in the short term. Combined with the market environment. In general, policies are very important, but automobile consumption is not entirely driven by policies, and is closely related to the macro economy, especially the income situation of low- and middle-income people. If their income can increase steadily, it will help support the development of the automobile market.

Shi Jianhua, deputy secretary general of the China Automobile Association, believes that the auto consumer market has recovered significantly in March, but consumers are affected by the epidemic and are still worried about their future expectations. Many consumers are waiting for policies. Now that the market has started, I hope that relevant policies can be introduced and implemented as soon as possible to truly release the consumption power.

"The China Automobile Association expects that the Chinese auto market will recover significantly in the second quarter, but it is difficult to recover to the level of the same period last year." Xu Haidong said that while only considering the impact of domestic factors, as various support and promotion policies have been introduced, Combined with the active efforts of auto industry companies, the sales level of the auto industry in the second half of the year is expected to recover or exceed the same period last year, but it will still be affected by uncertainties in the progress of overseas epidemic prevention and control.

Liu Jin