August heavy truck sales fell 60% year-on-year, light passenger growth 16%

On September 10, China Automobile Industry Association released monthly production and sales data. Data show that in August 2021, automobile production and sales completed 1.725 million and 1.799 million vehicles, respectively, down 7.4 and 3.5 percent month-on-month, down 18.7 and 17.8 percent year-on-year; from January to August 2021, automobile production and sales completed 16.166 million and 16.556 million vehicles, respectively, up 11.9 and 13.7 percent year-on-year, the growth rate continued to slow down from January to July.

The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said that the overall decline in automobile production and sales continued in August 2021, and the year-on-year decline was larger than the previous month. On the one hand, the intensification of the epidemic in Malaysia has led to a shortage of production and supply of regulated chips, and the shortage of chips in enterprises has further intensified. At the same time, due to the high base in the same period, the year-on-year decline in passenger car production and sales has expanded compared with the previous month. On the other hand, short-term market fluctuations caused by the switching of the six emission regulations continue to affect the demand for trucks, thus the production and sales of commercial vehicles.

In August, the production and sales of commercial vehicles completed 229000 and 247000 respectively, down 27.5 percent and 20.9 percent month-on-month and 46.2 percent and 42.8 percent year-on-year. Among them, the production and sales of trucks completed 193000 and 210000 vehicles, down 50.6 percent and 47.1 percent year-on-year, respectively; the production and sales of passenger cars completed 36000 and 37000 vehicles, up 3.0 percent and 6.6 percent year-on-year, respectively.

In August, the production and sales of trucks and buses continued the downward trend compared with the previous month, and the decline of trucks was more obvious; compared with the same period last year, the production and sales of passenger cars showed a slight increase, and the production and sales of trucks showed a rapid decline.

Among them, in the truck subdivision varieties, the production and sales of the four major categories of truck varieties decreased month-on-month and year-on-year, of which heavy trucks and minivans decreased more significantly. Sales of heavy trucks completed 51000 units, down 60.5 per cent year-on-year; sales of medium trucks completed 8000 units, down 35.5 per cent year-on-year; sales of light trucks completed 120000 units, down 36.8 per cent year-on-year; and sales of minivans completed 30000 units, down 53.0 per cent year-on-year. The production and sales of the four major categories of trucks showed a downward trend compared with the same period last year, especially heavy trucks and minivans.

Among the passenger car segments, compared with the previous month, the production and sales of medium-sized passenger cars showed rapid growth, while large and light passenger cars declined; compared with the same period last year, the production and sales of light passenger cars maintained rapid growth, and the decline of large and medium-sized passenger cars was more obvious. Sales of large passenger cars completed 3000, down 29.3 per cent from the same period last year; sales of medium passenger cars completed 3800, down 13.5 per cent from the same period last year; and sales of light passenger cars completed 30000, up 15.9 per cent from the same period last year.

From January to August, the production and sales of commercial vehicles were 3.275 million and 3.444 million, up 0.6 percent and 5.5 percent year-on-year, and the growth rate was significantly lower than that in January-July. Among the main varieties of commercial vehicles, compared with the same period of last year, the production and sales of passenger cars maintained a rapid growth, the output of trucks decreased slightly, and the sales volume increased slightly.

Among the main types of trucks, compared with the same period of the previous year, the production and sales of minivans showed a rapid decline, the medium-sized trucks maintained a rapid growth, and the growth rate of heavy and light trucks was slightly lower. Among the main types of passenger cars, compared with the same period last year, the production and sales of large passenger cars have declined, and both medium and light passenger cars have increased. Among them, the growth rate of light passenger cars is still obvious.

Looking forward to the fourth quarter, the China Automobile Association believes that the overall operation of my country's national economy remains stable, supporting the stability of automobile consumer demand. However, it should also be noted that the automotive supply side of the larger fluctuations, complex and volatile domestic and international situation brings a lot of uncertainty, overseas epidemics caused by the chip supply shortage problem still exists, superimposed on the fourth quarter of the market demand will also exacerbate the problem of limited supply. At the same time, the fluctuation of commercial vehicle market demand and the continuous high price of raw materials will further increase the cost pressure of enterprises and affect the operation of enterprises.

On this basis, the China Automobile Association preliminarily judged that the annual performance of the automobile market may be weaker than expected.

(Responsible Editor: Ma Hanming)