The recent drop in vehicle production accelerated in the first ten days of June amid the semiconductor crunch, according to a tally the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers released Thursday.
Output at 11 key automakers in China, which generate more than 90 percent of vehicle production industrywide, slipped 37 percent to some 434,000 vehicles during the period, the group said.
Production of light vehicles such as sedans, crossovers, SUVs, multipurpose vehicles and minibuses slumped 38 percent, while production of commercial vehicles such as buses and trucks fell 30 percent, according to CAAM
CAAM’s members include all foreign automakers that produce locally and all major domestic Chinese auto manufacturers.
In May, increasingly tight chip supplies caused light-vehicle sales and output in China to slip after 13 consecutive monthly gains.
Vehicle output industrywide last month dropped 6.8 percent from a year earlier to around 2.04 million, and sales dipped 3.1 percent to about 2.13 million, according to CAAM.
Production and sales in May of light vehicles decreased 2.7 percent and 1.7 percent to below 1.62 million and 1.65 million, respectively.
Meantime, output and sales of commercial vehicles slipped 20 percent and 7.4 percent to around 424,000 and 484,000.