China overtakes US as world’s top car market
February 11, 2009
CHINA overtook the United States as the world’s largest auto market for the first time when it sold more cars, 735,500 units, in January, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said yesterday.
But the January figure was a drop of 14.35 percent year-on-year and this indicated that sentiment in China’s auto industry is still in a downtrend because of a global financial crisis. Analysts, however, agreed that the market showed signs of an early recovery with government support and lower fuel prices.
Vehicle sales in China rose 6.7 percent to 9.38 million units last year. Sales may grow 5 percent this year, the slowest pace since 1998, CAAM said earlier.
January vehicle sales in the US plummeted 37 percent to 656,693 as more auto makers closed down plants and laid off thousands of workers.
The association reports said China’s passenger cars dropped 7.77 percent to 610,000 units last month, following a 12-percent slump in December
But the slower drop in sales was helped by the central government’s measures such as cutting fuel prices and halving a vehicle sales tax on small cars to counter a slump in the automotive industry since August last year.
“The fuel tax reform and tax cuts work effectively as sales of vehicles powered by 1.6-liter engine or less enjoyed rapid growth from a month earlier,” Zhu Yiping, a director at CAAM, said. “This helped passenger car makers to cut inventory by 80,000 units.” He added that the overall stockpile of Chinese car makers also hit its 13-month low.
Selling commercial vehicles remained tough due to the economic situation as their sales plunged 36.46 percent to 125,100 units in January, CAAM said.
China announced a 4-trillion-yuan (US$586 billion) economic stimulus package and favorable policies including tax cuts and road-toll abolishment in January to spur demand.
However, most analyst cautioned that the sales pickup won’t last long and they remain skeptical that China would remain the world’s biggest car market for the year.
“We should not be too optimistic as the impact of favorable policies may be weaker as time goes on,” said Rao Da, secretary general of China Passenger Car Association. “Sales of vehicles with engines larger than 1.6 liters are not expected to boom and overall sales will still be hampered by a weak economic outlook and lower exports.”
Source: Shanghai Daily
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LPG Automotive Tanks that May leak LPG Recalled
February 1, 2009
There has been a national recall of more than 13,500 LPG automotive tanks that may leak liquid LPG.
Axiom-brand hand taps on the tanks may have been fitted with an undersized O-rings, leading to the potential leaks.
The problem affects tanks fitted between November last year and February this year across the country.
LPG cylinder manufacturer APA is attempting to contact all motorists with the affected product.
In the meantime motorists have been advised not to refill the LPG tank, to avoid parking in a confined space and to contact their installer to have the affected part replaced.
Source:Â Â Â Â Â http://arafura.axxs.org
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China Auto Industry 2008
January 22, 2009
Shanghai Daily Newspaper is publishing auto industry stories of the 2008. Here is one of them you can read on:
THE impact of the global financial crisis on the auto industry has been growing since the second half of last year.
China stepped up a series of efforts to defy the economic downturn and spur domestic consumption, sending positive signals to the industry.
Fuel tax reform is the latest government effort to direct the automotive industry toward greener and more energy-efficient methods.
The struggling US auto industry is also teaching Chinese counterparts that more attention should be placed on small cars and new-energy vehicles.
China lost its first dispute since it entered the World Trade Organization in 2001 when tariff policies on auto parts drew criticism from western car makers.
Shanghai Daily previously highlighted the first five of 2008′s top 10 auto industry stories. Today, we publish the remaining top stories of the year. Read the restof article : Lessons to be learned from the US …
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Chinese economy expected to maintain stable, fast growth
August 3, 2008
BEIJING, July 27 (Xinhua) — The Chinese economy was likely to maintain stable and fast growth this year, despite being beset with problems and uncertainties, as fundamentals of the economy remained unchanged, Yao Jingyuan, National Bureau of Statistics chief economist, said on Sunday.
He made the remark at a forum held here on energy conservation and emissions reduction and corporate social responsibilities. The forum was jointly sponsored by the international cooperation center of the National Development and Reform Commission and China Association of Resources Comprehensive Utilization.
According to Yao, the fundamental forces shoring up the Chinese economy — industrialization, urbanization, market-oriented drive and internationalization — had undergone no big changes and would continue to function as major drivers of the economy.
Yao said China was at in the middle stages of industrialization and there was still a long way to go before the nation entered the post-industrialization era. In quite a long period of time ahead, industrialization would continue to be a major driving force for the Chinese economy, he added.
He used the automotive sector as an example.
In 1992 China produced 1 million motor vehicles. The annual auto output doubled and reached 7.27 million units in 2006 and 8.8million the following year. The production was expected to top 10 million units this year.
Over the past 30 years, China’s urban population expanded from 170 million to 570 million. But the urbanization ratio, measured by the number of urbanites against total population in a city, stood at 44 percent at present, still far behind the 70 percent to90 percent of developed nations.
The multitudes of migrants coming to cities would create a huge demand for housing and consumption goods, such as home electrical appliances, so urbanization would continue to drive the national economy forward, Yao said.
He believed the most outstanding challenges China faced were an unbalanced economic structure and big inflationary pressure.
He noted the Chinese economy now relied heavily on investment, exports and manufacturing, with agriculture remaining weak and the service sector, which could provide a large amount of jobs, claiming a small share.
Last year, the service sector accounted for only 40.1 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), much lower than the world average of 70 percent and even lower than the developing nations’ 51 percent average.
As for the inflationary pressure, Yao said he was confident about the price movements in China in the second half. The government had put macro economic control, particularly inflation curbs, at the top of its development agenda, and was making numerous measures, including agriculture boosting policies, Yao added.
Source: Chinaview.cn
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Cummins to invest additional US$300 million
October 25, 2005
The world’s leading diesel engine producer, Columbus, Indiana-based Cummins, announced here on October 14 that it will add US$300 million worth of investment in China in the next five years. The company also plans to expand its business volume in China from $1 billion in 2004 to $3 billion in 2010.
After 30 years of development, China has become the largest overseas market for Cummins in the world, said Tim Solso, board chairman and CEO of Cummins. As the Chinese auto market
expands gradually and demand for auto parts and components rises sharply, Cummins sees a huge market space and development potential in China, said Solso.
He added that long-term cooperation between Cummins and its Chinese partners had also laid a solid foundation for the American company’s future development in the country. Cummins has so far invested US$140 million in China and owns 12 companies and enterprises in the country.
New investments will be earmarked for the joint venture production of 11-liter engines with the Shaanxi Automotive Industry Corporation in Xian, the cooperative development of new-generation of 13-liter heavy truck engines and exhaust systems with Dongfeng Motors Co Ltd, and the production of natural gas engines in China.
In addition, investment will also be allocated to the R&D center, which has been jointly set up by Cummins and Dongfeng Motors Co Ltd. In order to let its board members feel the strong vigor of the Chinese market and Cummins business in China, Cummins held its 2005 global board meeting in China, from October 8 to 14. It was the first time in the last 15 years that Cummins had held a global board meeting in a place other than the United States.
Cummins, a global power leader, is a corporation of complementary business units that design, manufacture, distribute and service engines and related technologies, including fuel systems, controls, air handling, filtration, emission solutions and electrical power generation systems. Cummins serves customers in more than 160 countries and territories through its network of 550 Company-owned and independent distributor locations and more than 5,000 dealer locations. With more than 28,000 employees worldwide, Cummins reported sales of $8.4 billion in 2004.
The company is organized into four distinct but complementary business units. The Engine Business manufactures and markets a broad range of diesel and natural gas engines and aftermarket products for automotive, industrial and power generation applications. Cummins engines can be found in medium- and heavy-duty trucks, buses, recreational vehicles, light commercial vehicles and pickup trucks in on-highway applications, and in equipment in the construction, mining, agriculture, marine, rail and government markets.
The Power Generation Business is a global provider of power generations systems, components and services in standby power, distributed power generation, as well as auxiliary power in mobile applications to meet the needs of a diversified customer base.
The Distribution Business consists of Cummins wholly- owned and majority-owned joint ventures that provide Cummins products, parts, and service through more than 116 locations in nearly 80 countries and territories worldwide.
The fourth business unit is the Components Business, organized into four groups: Fleetguard (liquid and air filtration systems and Nelson acoustic exhaust systems found in heavy-, medium- and light-duty trucks), Emission Solutions (a provider of total system solutions that help customers meet the growing requirements to reduce oxides of Nitrogen (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) emissions from engine and power plant exhaust), Holset Engineering Co (designs and produces a comprehensive range of turbochargers and related products for diesel and gas engines in the 3.8 to 25 liter turbocharger range targeted primarily at the commercial vehicle and industrial markets), and Fuel Systems (designs, manufactures and remanufactures fuel systems for use on Cummins and other engines).
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