Since the performance in the first half of the year was lower than expected, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) has said it expects that sales of automotive vehicles in China will total 26.68 million units in the current year, down almost five percent from its previous forecast of 28.00 million units for 2019.
In particular, China’s passenger vehicle sales in 2019 will amount to 22.44 million units, down 5.4 percent year on year, China’s commercial vehicle sales will amount to 4.24 million units, down 3.0 percent year on year. Although China’s new energy vehicle sales will total 1.50 million units in the current year, up 19.4 percent year on year, as CAAM predicts, this figure will be still less than the association’s previous forecast of 1.6 million units for the year.
In the first half this year, China's vehicles sales dropped by 12.4 percent to 12.3 million units, and so most market sources believe that the latest CAAM forecast is more optimistic than the real market situation.
As a result, steel producers will still be targeting overseas sales of flat steel to cope with weaker local demand.