General Motors' China Sales For 2019 Drops For The Second Year On Weak Economy

The vehicle sales of General Motors (NYSE: GM) in China fell for a second year as overall auto sales declined amid a slowing economy. This is due to the and competition experienced in the key mid-priced sport utility vehicle (SUV) segment.

In 2019, sales fell by 15% from a year earlier to 3.09 million vehicles, and it also delivered 3.65 million vehicles in 2018 and 4.04 million units in 2017. This was contained in a statement issued by General Motors. General Motors is reported to be China's second-biggest foreign automaker.

General Motors Company is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, markets and distributes vehicles and vehicle parts, as well as financial services. The company is the largest American automobile manufacturer and one of the world's greatest. In 2018, GMC was ranked as number 10 on the Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporation by total revenue.

Reuters report that General Motors has a Shanghai-based joint venture with SAIC Motor Corp (SS: 600104), in which the Buick, Chevrolet and Cadillac vehicle brands are made. It also has another Liuzhou-based venture, with SAIC and Guangxi Automobile Group, in which they make no-frills minivans and have started to make higher-end cars.

Furthermore, the statement released by the company said sales of GM's affordable Baojun brand dropped by 27.6% for the latest quarter, while sales of mass-market Chevrolet tumbled 20.1% and Buick fell 16.7%. However, luxury brand Cadillac's sales increased by 3.9%.

Matt Tsien, General Motors executive vice president and president of GM China, said in the statement, "GM is focused on bolstering its product lineup and improving cost efficiency, we expect the market downturn to continue in 2020, and anticipate ongoing headwinds in our China business."

The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) has made a forecast that China's auto market is set to contract by 2% in 2020, the third year of declines, due to the weaker economy and the trade dispute with the United States.

According to the CAAM, In 2018, over 28 million units were sold, and this figure was 3% lower from the previous year, while 2019 sales are expected to decline 8% from the prior year.

The CAAM further revealed that it will announce the 2019 full year sales next week.

Last year, Investingport made a report on General Motors plan to invest a whooping sum of $1.5 billion dollars in a suburban St. Louis plant that is into manufacturing of trucks and vans. The Governor of Missouri, Mike Parson stated that General Motors was making a pledge to keep 4,000 jobs at the Wentzville Assembly and Stamping plant.