In perhaps the most glaring sign of the flailing auto industry yet, new passenger car sales dropped off 10.3 percent in China during the month of November. China, a stalwart of the global automotive industry, had seen a small uptick in sales in October after two months of slow sales, but with the tightening of the global credit market, sales dropped in November.
China’s Export and Import Bank agreed on Sunday to give Chery Automobile Company, a partner with Chrysler LLC, a loan of 10 billion Chinese yuan, or about $1.5 billion, to help support its overseas expansion efforts.
Most Chinese automakers are state-owned and those that aren’t operate as joint ventures with international companies. Shanghai GM, General Motors’ Chinese operations, saw sales drop 35 percent in November.
Dongfeng Nissan was one of the few automakers to see an increase in sales. Unlike United States Nissan sales, which were down more than 40 percent, Dongfeng Nissan posted an increase of 60 percent to 33,417 vehicles, the automaker said.
J.P. Morgan economist Frank Gong told reports that he expects the Chinese market to drop even further in upcoming months.
“People are losing high paying jobs which are being replaced by low-paying jobs in construction,” Gong told reporters. “Auto sales will continue to slow down.”
