GM Leads U.S. Carmaker Gains in China as Honda Motor’s Deliveries Decline
By Bloomberg News - Jan 9, 2012
General Motors Co. (GM) and Ford Motor Co. (F) reported record car sales in China last year, outpacing Japanese rivals hurt by production disruptions from the March 11 earthquake and Thailand’s floods.
Deliveries to Chinese dealers climbed 8.3 percent from a year earlier to 2.55 million vehicles, Detroit-based GM said in a statement yesterday. Ford said its sales grew 7 percent to 519,390 units. Toyota Motor Corp. (7203), Japan’s biggest carmaker, said last week that China sales rose last year at the slowest pace since at least 2004 and Honda Motor Co. (7267) yesterday reported its first ever annual decline in deliveries in the country.
GM, which received a $50 billion bailout from the U.S. government in 2009, sold an average of one car or truck every 12 seconds in the world’s largest car market last year as it started a five-year rollout of more than 60 new and upgraded models in China. Japan’s earthquake and tsunami affected suppliers for many Japanese automakers, with many also shutting plants in Thailand after the worst flooding in almost 70 years.
“It’s clear that Detroit is undergoing a resurgence even as the Japanese automakers grapple with a terrible 2011,” Ashvin Chotai, London-based managing director for Intelligence Automotive Asia, said in a telephone interview. “In China, GM and Ford have been fairly aggressive with new models.”
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