GM Fails To Profit From Japan’s China Troubles

Some have quietly or openly been hoping the GM could cash-in on the misery of Japanese brands in China. It's not happening. Sales across all of GM's Chinese joint ventures were up a marginal 1.7 percent in September while sales of German marques received a boost. GM China September 2012 Sept '12 YoY 9months YoY GM China 244,266 1.7% 2,081,812 10.0% Shanghai GM 120,010 3.7% 966,832 6.7% Chevrolet 56,166 3.2% 509,739 Buick 62,120 -1.8% 462,471 Cadillac 2,585 -8.3% 21,322 SAIC-GM-Wuling 119,510 0.4% 1,070,131 13.7% Wuling 109,502 -2.5% 990,190 Baojun 9,147 370.3% ? FAW-GM 4,581 -5.0% 41,249 1.4% Black: Company data. Blue: TTAC calculation from archive data. Sales of GM's Buick brand dropped 1.8 percent, Cadillac sales are down 8.3 percent. Chevrolet, up 3.2 percent did all the heavy lifting. The Sail  (18,786 units), and the Cruze, (18,338 units) made up for the bulk of Chevrolet sales. Sales of Wuling microvans are down 2.5 percent. Sales of GM's joint venture brand Baojun are up a whopping 370 percent to 9,147 in September. Keep in mind that Baojun sales were not reported for August. According to Reuters, "GM appears to have missed an opportunity to step into the gap left by Toyota, Honda, and Nissan, whose sales have fallen as a result of an outbreak of anti-Japanese sentiment in China." "German and Korean players are the biggest beneficiaries from the woes of the Japanese as they are much more competitive in the SUV segment," John Zeng, Asia Pacific director for industry consultancy LMC Automotive, told Reuters. In September, Audi's sales rose 20 percent to 35,512 vehicles in China, BMW was up 55 percent in September, Mercedes 10 percent. Hyundai sales were up 15 percent in China last month. from The Truth About Cars http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com

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