Analysis of Bus Sales in the First Half of 2012

Due to the increased attention to school bus safety, energy conservation and environmental protection, and the preferential policies of “bus priority” being influenced by more and more cities, such as favorable factors, many people in the industry were very optimistic about China’s bus market this year. In the first half of this year, the performance of the passenger car market was lower than industry expectations.

In the first half of this year, the passenger car market increased by only 3.6%. The growth rate slowed down significantly. The sales volume of China's passenger cars (referring to the entire vehicle, excluding non-integrated vehicles, the same below) in the first half of this year totaled 197,700, up only 3.6% year-on-year, and the growth rate was lower than last year. The 12.4% of the same period saw a significant slowdown. The main reason was due to the drag from the weakening of the macro economy, and the impact on the road passenger transport and public transportation markets.

Market Segments: Biggest Market Trends The Strongest Sales Maintaining Double-digit Growth Although the overall performance of the passenger car market has been unsatisfactory, there are still some bright spots in the medium, medium and light bus markets. Among them, the trend of the large passenger car market is still strong: In the first half of this year, big passengers still maintained double-digit growth, an increase of 14.4% to 32,500; Zhongke sold 30,100 vehicles, an increase of 9.1% over the same period of last year.



Although the performance of the light passenger market is poor, it still occupies an absolute dominant position in passenger cars. In the first half of this year, sales increased by only 0.2% to 135,100 vehicles, which accounted for 68.3% of the total bus market, and accounted for 70% of the same period last year.

Top 8 Enterprises: Yutong Group and Daikin Dragon Outperformed by 18% and 26% respectively

From the corporate level, sales of the top eight bus companies are much higher than those of other companies. In the first half of this year, the sales volume of the top eight companies was more than 9,000, and the total sales volume was 161,500. The market share was 81.7%, and the concentration was lower than the same period last year (84.8%). The sales of other companies are less than 4,000 vehicles, accounting for only 18.3% of the market.

Among the top eight bus companies, Yutong Group and Daikin Dragon performed most prominently in the first half of this year. Yutong Group's sales in the first half of this year increased by 18.2% year-on-year to 21,700 units, which was higher than that of Nanjing Automotive Group (sales were lower than that of Nanjing Auto Group in the same period of last year), second only to Jinbei Automobile and Jiangling Holdings. Its sales volume in the large and medium-sized passenger markets both topped the list. Sales volume increased by 23.4% and 9.1% to 1.02 million units and 95.94 million units, while sales in the light passenger market were relatively low at 1,954 units, but the year-on-year increase was 46.6. %.

Daikin Dragon's sales in the first half of this year increased by 25.6% year-on-year to 13,600 units, which exceeded that of Beiqi Foton. Its sales volume in the medium- and light-duty passenger car market maintained double-digit growth: sales in the Chinese passenger market increased by 42.4%, in the light passenger market by nearly 30%, and in the big passenger market by 11.5%.

In addition, Suzhou Jinlong also saw sales growth of 5.0% in the first half of this year, with sales increasing to 11,200 units.

The passenger car sales of Jinbei Auto, Jiangling Holdings, Nanjing Automobile Group, Beiqi Foton and Xiamen Golden Trip have both declined in the first half of this year. Among them, Jiangling Holdings had the highest sales decline, which fell 11.8% year-on-year to 25.8 million units. Followed by Xiamen Golden Brigade, its sales volume decreased by 9.4% to 9,509 units from 10,500 units in the same period last year.

Jinbei Automobile sales slightly decreased by 3.4% to 45,700 vehicles, but it still maintained its leading position in the passenger car market. Nanjing Automobile Group and Beiqi Foton Motor also fell 1.8% and 5.0% respectively.

Summary: Due to the weakening of the macroeconomic environment in the market, the sales volume of the passenger vehicle market in China in the first half of this year increased by only 3.6%, which was lower than the industry's expectations. Among them, the trend of the large passenger car market is the strongest, and it still maintains double-digit growth; while the sales volume of the light passenger car market only increases by 0.2%, which accounts for 70% of the total sales volume of the passenger car market.