China car sales decline after three years

China’s passenger-car sales fell in August for the first time in more than three years as the Beijing Olympics and a slumping stock market prompted drivers to delay purchases.

Sales of passenger cars, sport-utility vehicles and multipurpose vehicles totaled 451,300, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said in an e-mailed statement today.

Demand for cars in the world’s second-largest vehicle market cooled as inflation neared a 12-year high and a stock market slump reduced consumers’ spending power. Carmakers including General Motors Corp and Toyota Motor Corp, the world's two biggest automakers, have set up factories in China to offset slumping sales in the US, Japan and Europe.

“The August decline is mainly because of one-off factor of the Olympics that deterred consumers' attention,” said Yale Zhang, director at CSM Asia in Shanghai. “Car sales growth may recover as soon as September as automakers start to add new models and offer incentives again.”

China's benchmark CSI300 stock index has plunged 60 per cent this year, erasing $2.3 trillion in market value.

Total vehicle sales rose 14 per cent to 6.48 million units in the first eight months while sales of passenger cars rose 13 per cent to 4.55 million vehicles, according to the industry body.

Automakers: Sales at Shanghai Volkswagen Co, Volkswagen AG's venture with SAIC Motor Corp., plunged 27 per cent and FAW-Volkswagen Automotive Co’s sales dropped 7 per cent, according to calculations by Bloomberg News based on numbers provided by the association. The Volkswagen ventures were the country's biggest car assemblers last month.

Shanghai General Motors, which ranked as the third-largest carmaker in August, had a 19 per cent decline in sales from a year earlier, according to Bloomberg calculation.

Guangzhou Honda Automobile Co, Honda Motor Co’s venture in southern China, was the only automaker among the top five assemblers that increased sales in August, helped by its revamped Accord model.

Guangzhou Honda's sales surged by 41 per cent to 23,373 vehicles last month, making it the fifth-biggest carmaker in China, compared with its ranking as the ninth-largest a year earlier. The Accord sedan was the second-best selling model during the month.