China auto sales cool further in July

China’s auto sales decelerated further in July while global automakers continued to mop up the market share of local brands, industry figures showed Friday.

Sales rose 9.7 percent to 1.3 million vehicles, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. That was down from June’s 11.5 percent growth and May’s 13.9 percent.

Total vehicle sales in the world’s biggest auto market rose 6.7 percent over a year earlier to 1.6 million vehicles.

Global automakers see China as crucial to their future and are spending heavily to develop models for local tastes. That is squeezing China’s fledgling auto brands, which are growing but steadily losing market share to foreign rivals.

Sales by Chinese brands rose by a relatively robust 7.7 percent in July, CAAM said. But sales by German, Japanese, American and Korean brands soared 30.9 percent, 21 percent, 18.4 percent and 12.5 percent, respectively.

The standout vehicle category was sport utility vehicles. CAAM said sales rose 35.3 percent in the first seven months of the year, though it gave no figure for total sales.

Earlier, General Motors Co. reported sales of GM brand vehicles by the company and its Chinese partners rose 12.7 percent over the same month in 2013 to 249,734. Ford Motor Co. said sales rose 25 percent to 90,775 vehicles.

Nissan Motor Co. said July sales declined 12.3 percent from a year earlier to 79,500 but said year-to-date sales rose 10.7 percent to 699,900. Toyota Motor Corp. said July sales rose 99 percent to 74,800 vehicles.

Meanwhile, a group of global luxury automakers are under investigation by Chinese anti-monopoly regulators. Authorities have not disclosed the basis of the probe but analysts suggest they might have been prompted by complaints that imported luxury vehicles are too expensive and automakers abuse their control over supplies of replacement parts to charge excessively high prices. (AP)