BEIJING--China's car sales growth at the start of the year
slowed from a year ago, weighed by the cooling economy.
In the first two months of this year, a total of 3.43 million
passenger vehicles including sedans, sport-utility vehicles and
minivans were sold in China, up 8.7% from the same period in 2014,
the government-backed industry group China Association of
Automobile Manufacturers said on Tuesday.
The growth compared with an 11% year-over-year rise in
January-February 2014. Looking at total January and February sales
helps eliminate distortions caused by shifts in the timing of Lunar
New Year holidays, which fell in mid-February this year and in late
January in 2014.
The overall auto industry, which includes both passenger and
commercial vehicles, saw a 4.3% sales increase to 3.91 million
vehicles in the first two months of this year, said the
auto-manufacturers' group.
China's slowing economy will weigh on its auto market, the
world's largest by sales, over the course of the year, industry
participants say.
The auto sales report came after China last week lowered its
economic growth forecast to about 7% for 2015 from the 7.4% pace
the economy notched last year.
BMW AG last week said it targets high single-digit sales growth
in China this year, compared with a 17% gain in 2014. A spokeswoman
for General Motors Co. said in a recent email that 2015 will be a
"challenging year" for the broader car industry in China. She said
GM forecasts China's auto industry will grow between 6% to 8% this
year.
Major car makers have already reported slower growth over
January and February. GM's sales in China were almost flat compared
with the year-earlier period. Audi AG saw its China car sales
growth slow to 10.5% from 13% in the year-earlier period. Honda
Motor Co. reported a 7.6% decline in its China sales from a year
earlier.
By contrast, some of Chinese domestic manufacturers posted
stronger year-over-year growth thanks to low sales in the same
period last year. For the first two months of this year, Geely
Automobile Holdings Ltd., a sister company of Swedish brand Volvo
Car, recorded a 77% surge in car sales while Great Wall Motor Co.
posted a 22% rise in sales of sedans and crossovers, their
statements filed with stock exchanges show.
The combined share of Chinese domestic car brands rose to 43% of
China's passenger-vehicle market in the January to February period,
from 38.4% in the same period of last year, according to the
auto-manufacturers' group.
Rose Yu and Colum Murphy
Write to Rose Yu at rose.yu@wsj.com
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