Zhitong Finance APP was informed that the latest issue of the "China Automobile Dealers Inventory Early Warning Index Survey" released by the China Automobile Dealers Association showed that the inventory warning index of Chinese automobile dealers in April 2022 was 66.4%, up 10 percentage points year-on-year, up 2.8 percentage points month-on-month, the inventory early warning index was above the boom-bust line, and the automobile circulation industry was in a recessionary range. The severe epidemic situation has led to a cold market in the automobile market, and the crisis in the supply of new cars and the lack of market demand have combined to affect the automobile market, and the situation of the automobile market in April is not optimistic. The association expects full-caliber narrow passenger car terminal sales to be around 1.3 million units in April, a decline of about 15% month-on-month and a year-on-year decline of about 25%.
The China Automobile Dealers Association said that due to the tightening of epidemic prevention and control, the production, transportation and terminal sales of car companies were greatly affected in April. Moreover, the postponement of vehicles in many places has led to a slowdown in the pace of new car listings. Consumers' current income has decreased, and the epidemic risk-averse mentality has led to weak consumer demand in the automobile market, affecting the growth of automobile sales, and the impact in the short term may be greater than the supply chain difficulties.
Looking forward to the future, "due to the complex market environment, it is expected that the market performance in May will be slightly better than that in April, less than the same period last year", the China Automobile Dealers Association suggested, "the uncertainty of the future automobile market will increase, dealers should rationally estimate the actual market demand according to the actual situation, reasonably control the inventory level, and do not relax the epidemic protection".
In the sample of 94 cities surveyed, dealers in 34 cities have closed stores due to the provisions of epidemic prevention and control policies. Among the dealers who have closed their stores, more than 60% of them have closed their stores for more than one week, and the epidemic has seriously affected their overall operations. Affected by this, dealers can not hold offline auto shows, the pace of new car listing is completely adjusted, and the effect of online marketing alone is limited, resulting in a serious decline in passenger flow and transactions. At the same time, the transportation of new cars is limited, the pace of new car delivery is slowing down, some orders are lost, and the turnover of funds is tight.
In this survey, dealers feedback that in order to cope with the impact of the epidemic, manufacturers have successively introduced support measures, including reducing task indicators, adjusting assessment matters, strengthening online marketing support, and providing epidemic prevention-related subsidies. At the same time, dealers also hope that local governments will give relevant policy support, including tax reduction and fee reduction and interest discount support, encourage automobile consumption policies, provide car purchase subsidies and purchase tax reductions.
From the sub-index situation: April inventory, market demand, average daily sales, employees, operating conditions index decreased month-on-month. In April, the upstream automobile industry chain was affected by the epidemic and stagnated, the downstream terminal was affected by the closure of dealers and the price increase of some models, the overall market demand was weak, dealers faced the dilemma of declining profitability and tight funds, some dealers cut salaries and laid off employees, and the employee turnover rate was high.
From the perspective of regional indexes: the national total index in April was 66.4%, the northern index was 68.7%, the eastern index was 69.8%, the western index was 63.0%, and the southern index was 64.1%. The epidemic control measures in many places have been tightened, among which the epidemic situation in Shanghai, Jilin and other places is high, and the index in the north and east regions is relatively high nearly 70%.
From the perspective of sub-brand type index: imported & luxury brands, mainstream joint venture brands, and independent brand indexes rose month-on-month in April. The market demand for joint venture brands has shrunk more than expected, and the decline in sales has led to a higher inventory warning index.