Automobile and locomotive retail industry turnover is estimated to break 600 billion yuan, continuing to set a new record high

The Ministry of Economic Affairs stated on the 15th that the automobile and locomotive retail industry turnover in year 105 (2016) is expected to continue setting a new record high, mainly because the market share of imported cars rose rapidly, allowing the number of newly registered locomotives in the first 10 months to already surpass last year's full-year total.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs explained that looking at turnover over the past ten years, in year 97 (2008), affected by international oil prices hitting a historic high (OPEC oil prices once reached a high of 140.7 US dollars per barrel) and the global financial crisis, domestic consumption momentum contracted, and automobile and locomotive sales also declined simultaneously, resulting in turnover of only 341.7 billion yuan, an annual decrease of 20.2%. Afterwards, with the government's reduction of the commodity tax on automobiles and locomotives and falling oil prices, plus the economic recovery, consumer willingness was effectively boosted, causing three consecutive years of double-digit growth from year 98 (2009) to year 100 (2011), crossing the 500 billion yuan mark in year 100 (2011). In year 103 (2014), it coincided with a ten-year car replacement wave, and turnover increased 8.0% annually, the largest increase since year 101 (2012), and in year 104 (2015) it continued to increase 1.2%. This year, benefiting from incentives from the old-for-new subsidy policy, oil prices remaining at a low level, and imported cars actively seizing the market, turnover from January to October was 501.5 billion yuan, an annual increase of 4.5%, and full-year revenue is estimated to break 600 billion yuan, continuing to set a new record high.

Automobile and locomotive retail industry turnover is dominated by high-priced automobiles. From January to October in year 105 (2016), the number of newly registered automobiles was 359,000, a new high for the same period in nearly 11 years, an annual increase of 4.5%, among which domestically produced cars increased 1.9% annually and imported cars increased 8.8% annually. Looking at market share, the market share of domestically produced cars fell from 81.4% in year 97 (2008) to the current 60.9%, while the market share of imported cars rose from 18.6% to 39.1%, an increase of 20.5 percentage points, showing that imported cars, due to increasingly diverse models and a narrowing price gap with domestically produced cars, have rapidly increased their market share.

In addition, incentivized by the government subsidy policy, the number of newly registered locomotives in the first 10 months of this year reached 710,000, already exceeding last year's full-year 700,000, setting a new high since year 101 (2012), an annual increase of 18.3%. Among them, electric locomotives, with rising environmental awareness, saw nearly 16,000 new registrations in the first 10 months of this year, an annual increase of 151.0%.