China car sales slump 92% in first two weeks of Feb on coronavirus threat

Chinese President Xi Jinping warns coronavirus yet to peak as death toll climbs to over 2,200

China car sales plunged 92 per cent during the first two weeks of February in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

It was even worse in the first week, when nationwide sales tumbled 96 per cent to a daily average of only 811 units, the China Passenger Car Association said in a report released earlier this week. Deliveries this month may slide by about 70%, resulting in a roughly 40% drop in the first two months of 2020, it said. The figures exclude minivans.

“There was barely anybody at car dealers in the first week of February as most people stayed at home,” PCA Secretary General Cui Dongshu wrote in the report. Dealers gradually restarted operations in the second week of February, when daily sales of passenger cars stood at 4,098 units, still a decline of 89% from a year earlier, he said.

The situation is expected to improve in the third week of February, Cui said in an interview Friday.

The deadly coronavirus, which has brought the world's second largest economy to a standstill, has not yet peaked, Chinese President Xi Jinping warned the ruling Communist party officials on Friday amidst its spread to prisons across the country as the death toll climbed to over 2,200.

The death toll has gone up to 2,236 while the overall confirmed infection cases have climbed to 75,567, the country's health officials said amidst mounting concern over its spread to prisons in different provinces.

He said that the situation in Hubei, the worst-hit province, was still serious. The peaking of the virus is keenly awaited in China as it also means that the disease will then begin to abate.