Global Economic Crisis Smashes China, Delays New Car Launches

The global economic crisis continues its killing spree in the automotive industries and travels to China to meet one of the largest auto markets in the world. In fact, the economic crisis has already made itself heard in China as several carmakers decided to postpone new car launches, initially scheduled for the last months of 2008, for the upcoming year. Obviously, this can be only bad news for both interested clients and manufacturers because new delays will attract even lower sales for the affected models.

Analysts already predicted sluggish sales for next year, with worldwide companies trying different market strategies to reduce the effects of the crisis. The best example is given by motorcycle giants Suzuki, Yamaha and Honda who announced that the North American motorcycle production will be reduced by more than 100,000 units.

Getting back to China, auto exports also experienced problems, with a continuously decreasing demand in most markets. For instance, the number of Chinese-manufactured cars exported to Vietnam (one of China's largest automotive export market) was reduced by no less than 73 percent this year, the equivalent of 859 units.

"Problems in the global economy is the biggest crisis hitting China exports of finished vehicles," said Cui Dongshu, deputy secretary-general of the National Passenger Car Information Exchange Association, according to China Daily.

Chinese car manufacturers take almost the same decisions as the European and North American companies, cutting jobs and reducing the total production capacity in order to minimize economic crisis' effects such as lowered demand and slow sales. The best example is given by automaker Great Wall Motor, a company especially focused on car exports, which already confirmed that the initial 2008 target of 70,000 units was reduced to only 60,000 cars.