China’s auto market could shrink about 8% this year

Bearish market: Employees working at a plant operated by GM in Liuzhou. Amid gathering gloom over the global auto industry’s biggest growth story of the last 20 years, carmakers like GM, Ford and Peugeot SA have reported double-digit percentage sales drop. — Reuters

BEIJING: Auto sales in China may skid to 26 million this year, a drop of around 8%, a senior industry executive warned, as the world’s largest auto market braces for a second year of contraction amid slowing economic growth and tighter vehicle emissions standards.

The latest prediction, by Fu Bingfeng, executive vice-chairman of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), is lower than the group’s previous forecast for a 5% drop, issued in July.