China: Automobile production drops 18% y-o-y in Sept'21

Automobile production in China dropped by 18% y-o-y in Sept'21. Last month, Chinese automakers produced about 2.077 million units of vehicles, according to latest data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM).

Persistent global semi-conductor (chip) supply shortage resulted in a decline in auto production and its sales. The yearly decline in automobile production in September was 0.8% lower than that recorded in Aug'21. In comparison to Sept'19, production decreased by 6.1% y-o-y.

On a monthly basis, China's automobile production increased by 20.4% in Sept'21 compared to the previous month.

Auto sales down 20% y-o-y in Sept'21

China's automobile sales were recorded at 2.067 million units in Sept'21, a decrease of 20% compared to the corresponding month last year. The y-o-ydecline in Sept'21 auto sales was higher by 1.8% compared to that recorded in Aug'21.

Auto sales fell by 9.1% y-o-y compared to Sept'19, as per reports.

On an m-o-m basis, auto sales rose by 15% compared to Aug'21, according to official data.

Break-up of overall auto sales in September-:

• Passenger cars: 1.75 million units, down 16.5% y-o-y.
  
  
• Commercial vehicles: 317,000 units, down 33.6% y-o-y.
  
  
• New energy vehicles: 357,000 units, up 148.4% y-o-y.
  
  
• Chinese brand passenger vehicles: 821,000 units, up 3.7% y-o-y.
  
  
• Automobile exports: 173,000 units, up 74% y-o-y.
  
  

Auto production, sales up y-o-y in Jan-Sept'21

The cumulative figures of automobile production in China amounted to 18.243 million units in the first nine months of CY'21 (Jan-Sept'21), an increase of 7.5% y-o-y. Meanwhile, auto sales in China totalled 18.623 million units in Jan-Sept'21, up 8.7% y-o-y.

However, the growth rate of both auto production and sales continued to drop by 4.4% and 5% compared to Jan-Aug'21.

Compared with the same period in CY'19, China's auto production and sales showed an uptick of 0.4% and 1.3% y-o-y while the growth rate was 0.9% and 1.4% lower than that from Jan-Aug'20, respectively.

Near-term outlook

The chip supply shortage is expected to continue in the near-term which will likely keep the auto manufacturing business under pressure. This is ultimately going to lower the production and sales figures in the coming months, SteelMint notes.