Chip shortages are continuing to hurt car production in China. As a result, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) said total deliveries for 2021 may fall short of its estimate made earlier in the year. Manufacturers produced 2.08 million vehicles last month, down 17.9% from the same month last year. Sales saw a deeper decline of 19.6% year-on-year, with just 2.07 million vehicles sold in the country. Chen Shihua, Deputy Secretary General of the Association, said supplies of car chips were higher in September than in previous months, but still fell short of demand. The shortages, coupled with a higher comparative base last year, resulted in production and sales slumps last month, he said. Chen said power shortages in some parts of the country are also affecting production. “Considering all these factors, sales figures for this year may be lower than expected,” he said.
The Association initially estimated that vehicle deliveries could exceed 26 million units, up 4% from 2020. In the first three quarters, sales totaled 18.62 million, up 8.7% from the same period last year. But Xu Haidong, Deputy Chief Engineer of the Association, said sales in the fourth quarter are very likely to fall year-on-year because the figure was high in the same period last year.
Japanese automakers Honda, Nissan and Toyota saw their sales in China tumble in September. Honda sold 121,448 vehicles, down 28% from a year earlier due to the Covid-19 pandemic and a shortage of components. Nissan said it sold 104,443 cars, down 26%, due to “external headwinds including the ongoing pandemic, cross-industry material shortages, slowdowns, and increased competition.” Toyota said it sold 115,000 cars, down 36%. General Motors did not disclose monthly figures, but its sales in China during the third-quarter stood at 623,500 vehicles, down 19.2% from the same period in 2020. A breakdown of its sales show that four of the five brands available in China saw precipitous drops in their third quarter sales compared with the same quarter in 2020.
China’s largest SUV and pickup maker Great Wall Motors sold 100,022 vehicles in September, down 15.4% from the same month last year. The sweeping chip shortages have affected production, but the Baoding-based carmaker in Hebei province said it has been trying its best to acquire semiconductors. Geely, China’s largest private carmaker, delivered 103,936 vehicles last month, down 18% year-on-year. It cited Covid-19 and chip shortages as factors that curbed its production and deliveries. The carmaker has over 100,000 vehicles on its order book, according to company CEO Gan Jiayue. As in previous months, new energy vehicles, which include electric cars and plug-in hybrids, continued their momentum in September. Production and sales reached 353,000 and 357,000 units, respectively, a year-on-year growth of 150% according to CAAM. Production and sales in September both set new monthly records. NEV sales made up 17.3% of total vehicle deliveries last month. In the segment of passenger vehicles, their proportion was even higher, at 19.5%, the China Daily reports.
A dozen centrally administered state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in various industries have set up a platform for making breakthroughs in auto technologies that are vulnerable to external risks. The SOEs established the innovation platform for automotive digital transformation in Tianjin, under the guidance of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC). An official from SASAC said that by 2025, the platform will push the auto sector to make breakthroughs in leading-edge technologies, solving technology bottlenecks across the industry. The 12 SOEs include telecom carrier China Telecom, the China Automotive Technology and Research Center, carmaker FAW Group and China South Industries Group, the Global Times adds.
