Auto & Transportation

According to import and export data, the world's automobile sales reached 8.07 million units in March 2023, an increase of 11% year-on-year, a decrease of 13% from 9.28 million units in March 2018, and at a mid to low level in previous years. The world car sales from January to March 2023 reached 20.38 million units, a year-on-year increase of 4%, but the gap from the high point in recent years is 14%, indicating a significant level of difference. Due to the improvement in chip supply, the operation of the world automotive industry has significantly improved, leading to an improvement in sales for international car companies. In 2023, the cumulative global share of Chinese car companies will reach 30%. From a global perspective, the recovery of the Chinese automotive market in March was relatively slow, accounting for 30% of the world's automotive market share. Chinese automakers such as BYD and SAIC have shown the most outstanding rebound effect, with Asian groups represented by Toyota and Suzuki Kia showing improved performance. The international chip shortage in the past two years has had a relatively small impact on the Chinese car market, but has instead driven strong performance in Chinese car exports, seizing the huge international market supply and demand gap, and obtaining rare development opportunities. As a highly monopolistic industry such as automotive chips, this supply side tightening will bring significant opportunities to the rise of China's supply chain, and the development of electrification will also lead to the rapid decline of European car companies. According to import and export data, the world's automobile sales in March 2023 reached 8.07 million units, an increase of 11% year-on-year, a decrease of 13% from 9.28 million units in March 2018, and at a mid to low level in previous years.

After a continuous decline from 2018 to 2020, car sales in the world's major countries reached 81.35 million units in 2021, a year-on-year increase of 4%. The recovery performance after the epidemic was good. But in 2022, there were only 80.18 million vehicles, a year-on-year decrease of 1%, only slightly higher than the sales in 2020.

According to import and export data, the world car sales from January to March 2023 reached 20.38 million units, a year-on-year increase of 4%. However, the gap from the high point in recent years is 14%, indicating a significant level of difference. The trend from January to March 2023 was significantly lower than previous years' sales levels, and January was only better than the level in 2020. This is mainly due to low sales due to factors such as the Chinese New Year. In February, China's car market sales significantly increased month on month and remained at a relatively low level. The Chinese car market was not strong in March, and the global car market did not experience a significant increase in March.

China maintains a leading position in sales in 2022

The Chinese automotive market has an extremely significant impact on the world automotive market. In 2016-2018, Chinese cars accounted for about 30% of the world's cars, and in 2019, it dropped to 29%, but it still has absolute advantage. From 2020 to 2021, the country's share rebounded to 32%. In 2022, China's share increased to 33%.

Import and export data shows that China's share has decreased to 30% in 2023, which is also a normal reflection of the Chinese market's Spring Festival factors and the withdrawal of car purchase tax preferential policies. The market share in North America and Europe has rebounded comprehensively, while the market trend in the southern hemisphere is weak.

From the perspective of sales in various countries around the world, the relatively good performing market is in developed countries in Europe and America. The overall trend of China's car market is poor. And Russia's sales are actually less than China's export volume, which is really beyond expectations. From the perspective of world sales represented by major countries, global car sales decreased by 1% in 2018. For the first time since 2010, it has experienced annual negative growth. The car sales in 2019 were 89.81 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 4%, slightly lower than the decline in 2008; Sales decreased by 13% in 2020; 4% year-on-year increase in 2021; The performance of a 1% decrease in world sales in 2022 is poor; The global sales growth rate of 4% in 2023 showed good performance, with China decreasing by 7% and the rest of the world increasing by 8%. This is mainly due to the temporary adjustment of the Chinese car market this year.

Significant differences in global market share trends

In 2023, the world market will further differentiate and China's share will gradually rebound. In 2022, China has achieved good epidemic control, resulting in a strong market and a relatively high share of the world. The impact of chips and other factors on the Chinese car market is not significant, and restocking after shortages has a strong impact on the Chinese car market.

Import and export data shows that with the withdrawal of preferential policies, China's automobile sales have plummeted, with a share dropping to 29% in January; February rebounded to a good level of 32%; The amount decreased to 30% in March. From the monthly sales growth trend of various countries around the world, it can be seen that the trend remains balanced between months. However, due to various factors such as seasonal and annual factors, there is still a significant contrast in the trends of various countries.

Due to the fact that the Chinese car market is still in a period of popularity, showing a relatively strong trend at the beginning and end of the year, and a relatively soft trend in the summer, while the American car market shows a relatively weak trend at the beginning of the year and a relatively stable trend in the middle of the year. However, this year's Chinese car market has not shown the golden nine silver ten characteristics, so the share increase is not significant.

Due to the worsening of the epidemic in European and American car markets, there has been a sharp decline in the car market. In 2022, other car markets around the world will be affected by the epidemic and sluggish, with only the Chinese car market performing better before the Spring Festival.

From the current comprehensive performance of the group, Asian car companies generally perform strongly. Due to improved supply from Asian car companies such as Toyota, Hyundai, Suzuki, and BYD, production and sales of Asian car companies have recovered well. European car companies generally perform poorly.

Toyota Group has performed relatively well, increasing by 0.1 percentage points compared to last year. In 2023, its world share has reached around 12.4%, and its overall performance in the Southeast Asian market is strong. Volkswagen's performance is relatively sluggish, with a 0.4% decrease in share, which has a significant impact on the Chinese market. The overall improvement in the global market of Volkswagen Group is significant, but the temporary impact on the Chinese market is relatively significant.

The trend of Hyundai Motors in South Korea has been relatively stable, with a decrease of 0.1 percentage points compared to last year. In 2023, it had a world share of about 7.9% and performed well in other Asian markets, while China was weak.

Honda Group has also performed average this year, with weak performance in the Chinese market.

The performance of German Mercedes Benz and BMW Group has remained stable, while the performance of traditional luxury cars in the Chinese market has improved. At the beginning of this year, the Chinese market for luxury cars saw a low base and high growth.

Suzuki's market performance is strong, mainly in markets such as Japan.

In 2023, Chinese independent car companies performed well in Europe, especially when European and American car companies withdrew from the Russian market due to political reasons. Chinese car companies enjoyed a relatively shrinking market in Russia and overall performed well. Developed countries such as Australia have their markets occupied by SAIC, Great Wall, and others. Geely, FAW, and Dongfeng have performed well in the southern hemisphere and European markets.

At present, the strong European market is still SAIC's MG brand, which has successfully operated internationally and achieved good sales performance. New forces have also made breakthroughs in Norway and the Netherlands.