China Auto Exports Boom As Domestic Demand Slows

Export Surge: China's auto exports defy the trend of slowing growth at home.

China’s auto exports jumped 57% for the first seven months of 2011 over the same period last year to a total of 465,000 units, compared with only a projected 3.2% increase in overall domestic sales, according to the General Administration of Customs.

Sales abroad are expected to hit 800,000 vehicles for all of 2011, 15 percent more than the 681,000 sold in 2008 before the global recession. Huge export gains are virtually a necessity for China’s auto industry which is on track to boost capacity to 40 million vehicles a year by 2015 while domestic demand is expected to reach only about 27 million. That means exports will have to account for about 33% of total production compared with only about 7.3% currently.

China’s top auto exporter is Great Wall which shipped 12,717 pickup trucks and 12,707 SUVs in the first half. Russia, Australia and Chile were its biggest markets. Its goal is to double its proportion of overseas sales to 30 percent by 2015 from 14 percent this year.

Geely which now owns the Volvo brand. Exports surged 93% during the first half of 2011 to 13,385 units, mostly to Russia, Ukraine and Turkey. Its sales of 213,381 vehicles China during that period was only a 9% rise. For full-year- 2010 it exported 22,653 cars. Geely expects half its total sales to come from exports by 2015.

China’s car and car accessories exports for the first seven months were worth $22.9 billion, up 33.3 percent from last year.

In 2010 total car exports were 566,000 units with a total value of $31.05 billion.