Auto sector predicted to keep stable growth in 2011
As a matter of fact, Beijing's policies to tackle its congestion, including allowing only 240,000 license plates every year, which is significantly less than the increment of 800,000 vehicles in Beijing in 2010, will undoubtedly lead to temporary shrinkage of the Beijing automobile market in this year. However, with the national sales of automobiles exceeding 18 million in 2010, the local slowdown in Beijing would hardly affect the development trend of China's auto industry in general.
The reporter learned that domestic car companies are currently holding a wait-and-see attitude towards the Beijing market. But none of these companies have lowered their annual sales target. They also believed that the limited purchase policy in Beijing market would not affect the growth trend of the overall auto industry. Its impact should not be exaggerated, neither is it any excuse for the competition that a company needs to experience during its development process.
What is noteworthy is that on December 28 last year, the Ministry of Finance announced that a 10 percent vehicle purchase tax, approved by the State Council, will be levied on passenger cars with 1.6L or smaller engines since January 1, 2011.
In 2011, the biggest change of policy environment for the auto industry in China is that the auto industry will have to develop without preferential policies. With the expiring of preferential industrial policies, relevant policies will shift from supporting volume expansion to promoting industrial standard, against the background that the volume of China's auto industry has become the largest in the world. Therefore, after years of rapid development, China's auto industry will face various challenges in 2011.
Zhang Xiaoyu, executive vice president of China Machinery Industry Federation, said that:" the industry will be more promising if it depends less on government support and is more guided by the laws of the market. Either in times of ease or of difficulties, a company will always have to go through all kinds of challenges in the market". In fact, the slowdown of the Beijing automobile market has given many dealers a chance to contemplate over the bitter experience and to adjust strategy.
These companies are gradually being transformed from sales-oriented companies to service-oriented companies. Some more competitive and standardized dealers even take it as an opportunity. Those unscrupulous and loose dealers will gradually be cleaned out by the market. The market in general will become more standardized.
From a long-term perspective of the development of the national economy, the underling development trend of China's auto consumption will not change in the next 10 years. There is a huge market potential in China's secondary, tertiary, and quaternary cities, and in the rural areas.
Moreover, the urbanization process will undoubtedly be accompanied by the growth of automobiles consumption. The common view in the industry is that the development of the industry in 2011 will be stable and fast, though not as rapid as the previous years. The estimated sales volume is 20 million vehicles, a growth rate of about 11 percent over the previous year.
