China’s commercial vehicle market remained soft in the last quarter of 2015, according to new data published by US research company ACT in co-operation with China’s State Information Centre (SIC).
“Total heavy-duty sales declined more than 13 per cent year-on-year in 2015’s final quarter, though that number also represented a 24 per cent quarter-on-quarter rebound from weak third quarter volumes,” the company reported.
“For the full year 2015, heavy-duty vehicle sales in China fell 26 per cent from 2014 levels.”
To put the new data into perspective, ACT pointed out that the pace of growth of China’s economy slowed to 6.8 per cent on a year-over-year basis in Q4’15, down slightly from the 6.9 per cent pace recorded in the previous quarter.
Full-year real GDP growth in 2015 was 6.9 per cent, down from the 7.4 per cent recorded in 2014.
“Recent developments and achievements demonstrate that China continues to evolve, faces necessary changes, and earns recognition for its prominence in the global economy, as the country’s leaders continue to grapple with the challenges of recalibrating economic growth targets and implementing appropriate policies, commented Jim Meil, ACT’s Principal Industry Analyst.
“Heavy and medium truck and tractor markets may show temporary signs of improvement, but will remain subdued for the foreseeable future, until changes in both the country’s economy and the evolution of its transportation industry have stabilizsed,” added Robert Perkins, Senior Global Business Consultant at ACT.
Perkins added, “The country’s transportation industry is undergoing several changes that will impact vehicle demand, including rapidly improving vehicle quality, significant logistics efficiency improvement, and higher capacity vehicles.”