Posts tagged ‘Nissan Motors’

02/02/2013

* Coming of age: China’s used car market outpaces new sales growth

This also means that tyre companies will be selling tyres to replace the original sets.  Invest in rubber company shares!

Reuters: “Used car sales in China grew faster than new car sales for a second straight year in 2012, and should account for half of all sales within seven years as the world’s biggest autos market matures.

People select automobiles at a second-hand market in Shenyang, Liaoning province December 10, 2011. REUTERS/Sheng Li

While new cars still outsold used vehicles by more than 3 to 1 last year, they are sputtering after a period of breakneck growth, and the potential for the pre-owned market to be the industry’s growth engine is prompting foreign automakers to open more used-car outlets.

A key target for them are buyers like Jiang Meng, a 32-year-old office worker in the southeastern city of Guangzhou, who this month went shopping for a sport utility vehicle, and hadn’t considered a second-hand car until she came across a used car dealer run by Nissan Motor Co’s (7201.T) local joint venture.

“I wanted an SUV, but I wasn’t sure of getting a used one until I stepped into the store. There are so many models and they offer a warranty,” said Jiang, who traded in her 2-year-old Nissan Tiida sedan for a 4-year old silver Qashqai. The deal cost her 25,000 yuan ($4,000). A new Qashqai is priced at around 189,000 yuan.

“The car was very clean inside and outside and it drives very well. Many of my friends thought it’s new,” she said.”

via Coming of age: China’s used car market outpaces new sales growth | Reuters.

27/09/2012

* Japanese Car Plants in China: Who’s Feeling the Heat?

WSJ: “Explosive anti-Japanese sentiment in China forced Toyota, Honda and Nissan to idle factories across the country this month. Media reports suggest that fresh shutdowns may be coming again in October.

Halting production is never good news. But who’s got the bigger headache – the Japanese or the Chinese?

There is no question that Toyota, Nissan and Honda will lose sales and market share to competitors. It’s already happening. And lost sales matter because China accounts for 15% of global profits at Toyota and Honda and as much as 25% at Nissan.

And yet, the pain could become even greater for China.

All Japanese cars made in China are produced at joint-venture factories owned on a 50-50 basis with Chinese partners. When the plant doors close, Chinese executives who run those joint ventures will immediately confront two frightening realities: a dramatic drop in revenue and tens of thousands of idle workers.

Take Hong Kong-listed Guangzhou Automobile Co for example. GAC, a subsidiary of the powerful Guangzhou municipality, runs world-class car assembly joint ventures with Honda and Toyota that employs just under 13,000 people.

Guangzhou Honda and Guangzhou Toyota also buy car parts from hundred of suppliers based in Guangdong province that employ tens of thousands of more people. Honda and Toyota products are sold through more than 900 dealers owned by Chinese business people. Count several more thousands of jobs there.

As China steps its way through a delicate political transition expected to formally begin in October, the last thing the leadership in Guangzhou wants to deal with is a crush of workers with too much time on their hands. If an argument between workers at a Foxconn 2038.HK +0.78% plant in Taiyuan can trigger rioting by thousands, imagine what might happen should Guangzhou workers start wondering about future job security.

Guangzhou Automobile isn’t an isolated case.”

via Japanese Car Plants in China: Who’s Feeling the Heat? – China Real Time Report – WSJ.

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