Sales of the renowned Cadillac maker General Motors Corporation have been experiencing a decline in vehicle sales in China for two years in a row. The cause of the decline was a tough competition and China's slowing economy.
According to Kitco, in 2019 alone, sales for General Motors Corporation (GM.N) fell by 15 percent. The values showed that the brand only created about 3.09 million vehicles despite being China's second-largest foreign automaker.
It was also showed that sales on the brand's Baojun brand also declined by 27.6 percent during the last quarter of 2019. Moreover, sales on its renowned line Chevrolet also declined by 20.1 percent while Buick dropped by 16.7 percent. However, the company's luxury brand, Cadillac, showed improvement in its vehicle sales, which experienced a 3.9 percent increase during the same period.
A statement made by General Motors highlighted that the causes of the decline in vehicle sales in the region as China's slowing economy and having a tough competition on its mid-priced sport utility vehicle (SUV) segment.
General Motors currently has a joint venture with SAIC Motor Corporation and is currently based in Shanghai. The report claimed that the company is also in partnership with Guangxi Automobile Group along with SAIC where they supply no-frill minivans. The ventures were also reported to have started making higher-end cars.
According to General Motors' executive vice president and president of General Motors China Matt Tsien, the company is now focusing on improving its product lineup and hopes to establish a more cost-efficient business strategy in China.
Tsien added their brands are also expecting more decline by 2020, which is their third successive decline in China. He said that China's automotive market is expected to decline by two percent this year and that it is an inevitable demise because the China-US trade war has adversely affected the automobile industry.
The Wall Street Journal reported that US carmakers, not just General Motors, are going to experience further declines in vehicle sales this year. It was mentioned that General Motors had been underscoring the challenges that foreign entities in China must face.
It was also revealed that global carmakers had been eyeing China as a location that would offer greater profitability for their ventures in years. It was perceived to be a source of growth for a company and could aid entities to offset cyclical slowdowns in more mature automakers that operate in the US and the United Kingdom.
