China wholesales 1-20 May 2020: Market stabilises at -2.5%

New car sales in China have returned to pre-coronavirus levels. Picture Reuters.

After sinking -14% year-on-year over the first 10 days of May to 351.000 units, new vehicle wholesales in China have stabilised to just -2.5% year-on-year over the first 20 days of May to 971.000 units, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM). This means wholesales are actually up 5.5% year-on-year over the 11-20 May period to 620.000. Over the first 20 days of the month, production soared 17% to 1.14 million units. This result confirms the Chinese market has now recovered from the COVID-19 crisis with volumes now equivalent to year-ago levels, just as the city of Wuhan is completing the testing of all it inhabitants and new quarantines are imposed in the northeastern Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces due to new clusters there imported from Russia.