Maar de reden van de daling ontgaat mij, of is het hierom (wat ik ook positief kan lezen..)?
BEIJING -(Dow Jones)- Despite surging oil prices and an end to some government incentives for car buyers, Daimler AG (DAI.XE) Monday said it expects sales of Mercedes-Benz vehicles to increase at least 20% this year in China.
Ulrich Walker, chairman of Daimler Northeast Asia Ltd., told a news conference the forecast for Mercedes-Benz sales was a "conservative" target.
Walker also said he's not too concerned about Beijing's new measures to curb car purchases to ease traffic congestion as China's national car market still has large potential.
"Low car density and urbanization will provide great potential for future growth," he said, adding that as incomes rise people will be more willing to buy premium cars.
China's overall auto sales growth is expected to slow to 10%-15% this year following a 32.4% expansion last year, the semi-official China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said in January.
Sales growth in the first quarter lagged below CAAM's earlier estimates due to a surge in oil prices, the Japanese earthquake's impact on vehicle production and the Chinese government's withdrawal of incentives to buy cars with small engines, according to the association.
Earlier Monday Daimler said first-quarter auto sales in Northeast Asia rose 75% from a year earlier to 52,380 units.
Sales of Mercedes-Benz branded vehicles in China, meanwhile, increased 86% in the first quarter to 43,990, the company said in a statement. The growth rate significantly surpassed overall auto sales growth in China.
For the first quarter, total car sales in China rose 8.1% from a year earlier to 4.98 million vehicles, sharply lower than the growth of 72% recorded in the first quarter of 2010. Passenger vehicle sales rose 9.1% to 3.84 million in the most recent quarter.
Daimler and its local partners will invest 3 billion euros in the China market by 2015, Walker said.
He also said Daimler plans to enlarge its production capacity in China and he doesn't currently see any overcapacity in the premium car segment in China.
Currently 70% of Mercedes-Benz sedans sold in China are imported but Walker expect the percentage of imported sedans will decrease to 30% eventually, as the company ramps up its local production capacity. He didn't provide a time frame.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 11, 2011 07:56 ET (11:56 GMT)
© 2011 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
NB long Daimler op 50 en een beetje
grt Mintzkov