China Auto Market: Looking forward to a higher level
Jiefang Daily reported on June 24th
Car prices raised annual sales target
In 2009, manufacturers set production and sales targets can be described as "ice and heavy two days."
At the end of last year, when it came to the sales target in 2009, most manufacturers were cautious, and only BYD's manufacturers had thrown out production and sales targets. Until the end of January this year, the production and sales targets of the major car companies were gradually introduced, and the figures are quite conservative.
The various policies introduced by the state disrupted the position of car companies. Driven by and driven by a series of favorable policies, the auto market has soared in the first half of the year.
In January, auto sales rose 20% year-on-year to 735,500 vehicles. The Chinese auto market has become the only bright spot in the global auto market. In February, car sales increased to 827,600 units, which was a year-on-year increase of 25% and a year-on-year increase of 13%.
Such data has caused many manufacturers and industry insiders to be somewhat unexpected, but growth has not stopped. In March and April, domestic automobile sales continued to rise sharply, showing a rare historical month-to-month movement. Among them, in March, it broke the million mark, reaching 1.1097 million units, and the April sales record was once again refreshed, soaring to 1.15 million. Although the total volume fell after entering May, it still reached a staggering 1.12 million, a surge of 34% year-on-year.
The auto market is so prosperous that manufacturers are no longer able to resist, and can't help but increase their annual sales targets. At the end of April, Beijing Hyundai announced that it would increase production and sales plans from 360,000 vehicles to 400,000 vehicles. Actually, this figure is not radical. Data show that from January to May, Beijing Hyundai sales reached 209,778 vehicles, an increase of 61%. In just five months, Beijing Hyundai completed more than 50% of its annual sales target.
Driven by the mini vehicle sales, Changan Automobile announced in the same month that it will increase its target of 500,000 vehicles scheduled for the beginning of the year to 600,000. In May, FAW Toyota announced that it will increase its 2009 sales target from 380,000 to 400,000. FAW Toyota Motor Co., Ltd. said that the company has made corresponding preparations for spare parts supply, and the increased 20,000 targets will be allocated to each model. Shanghai GM, Dongfeng Yueda Kia, Changan Ford Mazda and FAW-Volkswagen are also busy correcting the miscalculations at the beginning of the year and have successively increased annual sales targets.
In addition, car companies are currently completing orders overtime to gradually increase production capacity. Dongfeng Nissan has been riveting its efforts 24 hours a day; Beijing Hyundai will increase its second plant capacity and will recruit new employees to supplement the production line; GAC Toyota said it will cancel high-temperature holidays this year in order to increase production of 1,000 vehicles in August.
Dealers love and hate
The crowded car enterprises raised their production and marketing targets so that dealers love and hate each other.
“This prototype has already been sold. If you place an order now, it is expected that you will be able to pick it up after 1 month.†This is the latest sentence I heard from the dealers in Shanghai recently. At present, almost all models are in a hot state, waiting for a month to mention the car is the norm. Corresponding to the tension of the car source, the car price is now biting tightly, and the discounts for a large number of mainstream models are shrinking. Many popular models have no concessions. The author recently visited a number of 4S stores in Pudong, in which the preferential range of Roewe models has been reduced by 5,000 yuan, Audi A4L, CRV, Highlander and other models do not have any concessions.
The boom in the auto market has prompted some dealers to welcome the company’s behavior. A FAW Toyota 4S shop in Shanghai said that after the listing of the RAV4, it has been in a state of oversupplied supply. After a vehicle is sold and the manufacturer increases its production capacity, the store can also get more quotas.
On the other hand, the direction of the auto market in the second half of this year is different. Whether it is sustained growth or decline, nobody can be sure. In response to this trend, production and sales targets have been raised, and some distributors have expressed concern.
Some dealers believe that at present, everyone will expand their production together. In the second half of the year, it may be that supply exceeds demand. In the end, there is only one price war. As the saying goes: Take a rock and hit your own feet. Even if there is no significant price reduction, the sales pressure of the production companies will also be added to the distributors, which will increase the pressure of survival for the distribution companies. Those who are not optimistic even believe that the auto market will be more rational in the second half of the year, and the increase will be lower than in the first half of the year. Therefore, such a large-scale increase in sales and production target is a risky move. In the first week of June, passenger cars fell by about 19% from the same period in May. This seems to confirm the concerns of these dealers and it also serves as a wake-up call for car companies.
In addition, some people in the industry expressed concern about the rapid progress of auto companies: The response of auto companies has a significant lag period compared with the market. In the first quarter with strong market demand, most car companies were cautious and even consciously controlled their production capacity, leading to the fact that the market has been in short supply and continues to this day. But the next is the traditional off-season for more than two months. At this time, increase production capacity. Will the market demand support this part of the increased output? Will it lead to a new round of excess capacity? This is worth thinking calmly.