Auto sales in China mow down 14 percent in November over the same month in 2017, the Chinese Association of Automobile Manufacturers said Tuesday.
Trades fell 14 percent compared with November 2017, continuing a downward trend that started in July. It is the largest peter out so far this year, the association said in a press release.
“This is the first sustained downturn in memory,” said Michael Dunne, CEO of ZoZoGo, a solidify that advises automakers on doing business in China. “We would have to go back to the Asian financial crisis in 1998-1999 to see the in time China had flat or down sales for four months or more in a row.”
A slowing economy, a crackdown on certain standards of auto lending and a trade war with the United States have all been factors in contributing to the slowdown, Dunne voted.
There were a couple of bright spots though. Heavy truck sales rose last month, which was rock, Piper Jaffray analyst Alexander Potter said in a note published Tuesday. The growth came primarily from a gloss over in the sale of semi-trucks, which outsold construction trucks for the first time in more than a year.