China auto sales surpass US for 3rd month

[Prometheus Bound]

Source: Associated Press, Canadian Press, Reuters, CNN

China auto sales surpass US for 3rd month
39 minutes ago

SHANGHAI — Preliminary figures show auto sales in China reached about 1.03 million in March, exceeding U.S. sales for the third month in a row, state media reports said Wednesday.

Sales data from 14 major auto makers, accounting for roughly 90 per cent of total sales, totaled 1.026 million, the Shanghai Securities News and other state-run newspapers said, citing Chen Bin, head of the Department of Industry at China's main economic planning agency.

Full industry data due to be released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers in coming days could push March auto sales in China, the world's second-largest auto market, to a monthly record, the report said.

China's industrywide auto sales in March 2008 totaled 1.06 million, it said.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5jxKOMEMs7F1E3ThR048Mx9lY2GnQ

GM March China sales up 24.6 pct, monthly record
SHANGHAI, April 8 (Reuters) - General Motors Corp (GM.N) said on Wednesday its China sales in March rose 24.6 percent from a year earlier to 137,004 vehicles, setting a company record for monthly sales as China's stimulus policies bolstered the market.
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssConsumerGoodsAndRetailNews/idUSSHA27987520090408

GM's March China Sales Up 24.6% On Year At 137,004 Vehicles
Dow Jones
April 08, 2009: 04:19 AM
BEIJING -(Dow Jones)- General Motors Corp. (GM) said Wednesday it set a single-month sales record in China last month, with March vehicle sales totaling 137,004 units, up 24.6% from a year earlier.

Sales at its passenger vehicle joint venture. Shanghai GM Corp., totaled 46, 054 units in March, the auto maker said in a statement. It didn't provide a percentage growth figure.

March sales at its commercial vehicle joint venture, SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile Co., rose 38.1% from a year earlier to 90,784 units, a monthly record, GM said.
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200904080419DOWJONESDJONLINE000432_FORTUNE5.htm


Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5jxKOMEMs7F1E3ThR048Mx9lY2GnQ

[liberal N proud]

1. How has that impacted their bicycle numbers?

That is what I want to know.

[Prometheus Bound]

2. When the people in power drive cars you can probably imagine what happens.

In 2004, about 500 million people in China used the bicycle for transportation.

Shanghai alone had 8 million bicycles. And a couple of hundred thousand cars. So the government banned bicycles from the main roads. 8 million vs 200,000 and they banned the 8 million. You can guess who drives the cars.

China wants to become an auto superpower. Of course it's unsustainable.

[liberal N proud]

4. I can't imagine 8 million cars in Shanghai

200,000 is bad enough.

Of course most of those 8 million will never be able to afford a car.

[sythe200]

5. Whats wrong with people having cars? And whats unsustainable about it?

[pampango]

6. If the poster you're responding to means that mass car ownership is unsustainable in

any country, in terms of the environmental impact, oil supplies and prices, etc., that may be true. However, that applies equally to the US (with a quarter of China's population) as it does to China.

I agree that mass car ownership around the world may indeed be "unsustainable". What I disagree with (not sure that this is what the posters was implying) is that Chinese cannot "live like Americans" because it would put too much pressure on the global environment or oil supplies. We are all in this together. If car ownership is going to be discouraged or limited, it has to be done in all places, not just in those where people are still relatively poor but getting wealthier.

[Prometheus Bound]

8. The numbers are impossible. They can't afford it. The oil doesn't exist.

Most of the numbers I have handy are from 2004-05. They're much worse today.
- in 2004 China consumed 292 million tonnes of oil, while producing 169 million
- in 2009 this is approaching 500 million tonnes (output 200 million)
- in 2004 it imported 123 million tonnes, a dependence rate of 42 per cent
- in 2009 it will import 300 million tonnes.
- In 2004 35 per cent was consumed by the transport industry, principally cars
- in 2005 China had two cars per 100 people vs. 78 in the US

So one of the largest importers of oil on earth is more than doubling its oil imports every five years. Their goal is US-type ownership - 78 cars per 100 people from 2 per 100 people.

How is this sustainable? It's simply impossible.

The increase in pollution over here in the last few years is something horrible.

[pampango]

10. We may be in agreement. The oil doesn't exist for Chinese to own cars to the same

extent that Americans do. My point is that they have the same "right" to existing and future oil that Americans do. The impact of this oil shortage on the extent of car ownership needs to be reflected in both countries (indeed in every country) not just in China.

Some posters (not you) give the impression that China's prosperity needs to be restrained, so that Americans can maintain their life style. Chinese prosperity puts pressure on oil prices, competes with our industry, may lead to it becoming a economic/military rival, etc. (The idea seems to be that we were better off when China was poor and "off the grid" under Mao. China used little oil then, exported nothing but ideology, and, while it had a large army and atomic bombs, was technologically inferior militarily and no threat to anyone but its neighbors. As such it had little effect on life in the US.)

Your point apparently is that mass car ownership in China is bad for the Chinese. That is a different point and a very valid one. Likewise, one could argue that mass car ownership is becoming an anachronism in the US given diminishing oil supplies and global environmental concerns.

[Prometheus Bound]

7. I didn't say there was anything wrong with people having cars.

I don't understand why you claim I did.

[sythe200]

11. My Apologies

I misread the intent of your post. I belive that I understand what you meant to say now.

[madrchsod]

3. bicycle workers no longer have jobs

pictures of the sky over beijing before the auto boom and after tell the tale...

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

9. --->

[madrchsod]

12. yup..that`s the picture i remember seeing.

.

[Naipes]

13. Photoshop is an amazing tool

[quakerboy]

15. Meaning what?

[unkachuck]

16. or it could have been....

....a foggy low-pressure day?....I thought Chinese emission standards were more stringent than ours....oh well, glad to see Chinese auto sales booming, only wish ours were....

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

17. Even NASA is getting in on the photoshopping!

Even NASA is getting in on the photoshopping!

[tammywammy]

14. The China auto industry is very interesting

I've met some of their representatives when they were in the US last fall. The used car market is just now coming around in China and they were here to see how the US dealerships handle a used cars. Very interesting.