In 2012, China’s automobile exports have slowed down. After swift growth of 53.2 percent in 2010 and 52.2 percent in 2011, the growth of China’s automobile exports have slowed down in the first half of 2012 and the year to year growth was only 17.7 percent. According to the Customs Information Network (www.haiguan.info),China has exported 429,000 automobiles (including completed ones and components), up 17.7percent over the same period of last year. The growth decreased substantially by 34.7 percentage points from 52.4 percent at the same period last year; the export value rose by 39.5 percent to 5.81 billion US dollars; the average export price rose by 18.5 percent to 13,552.7 US dollars.

First, the types and categories of China’s automobile exports
In the first half of the year, according to the export volume, China’s automobiles are listed in sequences as follows: sedans, trucks, small passenger cars (with nine seats or less) and four-wheel drive light off -road vehicles. The export quantity of sedans was the most and maintained a situation of rapidly growing. The exports of sedan in the first half of the year rose by 32 percent to 198,000. The increasing degree rose by 14.3 percentage points over the same period of last year. The export monetary volume rose by 49.7 percent to 1.5 billion US dollars and the average price rose by 13.4 percent to 7,538.3 US dollars; In the same period, the export monetary volume of trucks was the largest and the quantity rose by 15.5 percent to 157,000. The export monetary volume rose by 36.2 percent to 2.03 billion US dollars and the average price rose by 17.9 percent to 12,962.4 US dollars; The export quantity of small passenger cars (with nine seats or less) rose by 11.8 percent to 29,000. The export monetary volume rose by 22.7 percent to 220 million US dollars and the average price rose by 9.7 percent to 7657.4 US dollars. The export of four-wheel drive light off -road vehicles was weak. The export quantity dropped by 86.3 percent to 2,809. The export monetary volume dropped by 82.9 percent to 31.38 million US dollars and the average price rose by 24.8 percent to 11,169.9 US dollars.

Second, the trade modes of automobile exports
General trade and processing trade are important trade modes ofChina’s automobile exports. In the first half of this year, General trade still played a leading role inChina’s automobile exports and the proportion of it increased dramatically. The automobile export quantity in the mode of general trade rose by 35.6 percent to 394,000 and its proportion of the total amount rose from 78.8 percent to 91.9 percent in the same period of last year and this year. The export monetary volume rose by 45.6 percent to 4.45 billion US dollars and the average price rose by 7.4 percent to 11,283 US dollars. In the same period, in the mode of processing trade, the price increased but the export quantity decreased. The export quantity in the first half of the year dropped by 64.4 percent dramatically to 23,000 and its proportion of the total amount dropped from 18.1 percent to 5.5 percent in the same period of last year and this year. The export monetary volume rose by 8.8 percent to 830 million US dollars. The average price increased rapidly by 2.1 folds to 35,533.6 US dollars.

Third, the international market distribution of automobile exports
In the first half of the year,China has exported automobiles to 187 countries (districts) in the world, 9 countries more than that in the same period of 2011. The lists of the export quantity in this year have changed, but not obviously. The main features are as follows: First,Algeria replacedBrazil to be the largest automobile export market. In the first half of this year, Brazil increased its tax on automotive products which lead to a sharp rise of China’s automobile export costs in Brazilian market, therefore, the automobile exports to Brazil was seriously diminished and ranked from the first in the first half of the year of 2011 to top ten in the same period of this year. In the first half of this year,Algeria, the largest importer, had significant export growth and imported 70,000 automobiles fromChina which is 16.4 percent ofChina’s total automobile exports, up 1.1 folds over the same period of last year. The export monetary volume rose by 67.8 percent to 450 million US dollars and the average price dropped by 18.9 percent to 6455.6 US dollars. In the same period,China’s exportation toBrazil dropped by 85.1 percent to 8,000 which was 1.8 percent ofChina’s total automobile exports. The proportion decreased 12.6 percentage points over the same period of last year.

Moreover, there are more countries exporting over 100 million US dollars. 16 countries exported 100 million US dollars in the first half of 2012, which increased by 45.5 percent over the same period of 2011, they are: Russian Federation (570 million US dollars), Algeria (450 million US dollars), Venezuela (430 million US dollars), Chile (230 million US dollars), Iran (220 million US dollars), Saudi Arabia (210 million US dollars), Iraq (210 million US dollars), Peru (190 million US dollars), Kazakhstan (180 million US dollars), Australia (150 million US dollars), Vietnam (130 million US dollars), North Korea (120 million US dollars), Angola (110 million US dollars), Myanmar (110 million US dollars), Mongolia (110 million US dollars), and Brazil (110 million US dollars). At last, the top ranked export markets are increasing sharply.Chinahas exported 11,000 automobiles toVenezuelawhich rose by 11.7 folds rapidly. The export monetary volume rose rapidly by 53.3 folds to 430 million US dollars and the average price rose by 3.3 folds to 38,814 US dollars.Chinahas exported 13,000 automobiles toSaudi Arabiawhich rose by 4.6 folds. The export monetary volume rose by 2.4 folds to 210 million US dollars and the average price dropped by 39.1 percent to 17,078.4 US dollars. In addition, the exports toUkraine,IranandIraqmaintain a situation of growing rapidly. In the first half of this year,Chinaexported 15,000 automobiles toUkrainewhich rose by 85.2 percent over the same period of last year. The export monetary volume rose by 92.3 percent to 90 million US dollars and the average price rose by 3.8 percent to 6,298.4 US dollars.Chinaexported 25,000 automobiles toUkrainewhich rose by 53.6 percent over the same period of last year. The export monetary volume rose by 4.5 percent to 220 million US dollars and the average price dropped by 31.9 percent to 9,040.1 US dollars.Chinaexported 30,000 automobiles toUkrainewhich rose by 51.8 percent over the same period of last year. The export monetary volume rose by 55.1 percent to 210 million US dollars and the average price rose by 2.2 percent to 7,183.6 US dollars.

Forth, automobile export enterprises
The nature of the export enterprises
The main natures ofChina’s automobile export enterprises are state-owned enterprises, foreign-invested enterprises and private enterprises. In the first half of the year, the exports of the state-owned enterprises played a leading role and its growth are faster than the overall level. The state-owned enterprises exported 196,000 automobiles which rose by 21.1 percent over the same period of last year and were 3.4 percentage points higher than the overall growth rate ofChina’s automobile exports in the same period of last year. The export monetary volume rose by 45 percent to 2.7 billion US dollars and the average price rose by 19.8 percent to13, 769.1 US dollars. In the same period, the exports of the foreign-invested enterprises exported 124,000 automobiles which rose by 14.4 percent over the same period of last year. The export monetary volume rose by 34.1 percent to 1.51 billion US dollars and the average price rose by 17.2 percent to12, 219.6 US dollars. The exports of the private enterprises exported 109,000 automobiles which rose by 15.7 percent over the same period of last year. The export monetary volume rose by 36 percent to 1.6 billion US dollars and the average price rose by 17.6 percent to14, 673.3 US dollars.

In addition, according to the proportion, the proportion of the export quantity of the state-owned enterprises was 45.7 percent and the proportion of monetary volume was 45.1 percent; the proportion of the export quantity of the foreign-invested enterprises was 28.8 percent and the proportion of monetary volume was 34.1 percent; the proportion of the export quantity of the private enterprises was 25.5 percent and the proportion of monetary volume was 36 percent.

The scale of the automobile export enterprises
According to the data from the Customs Information Network (www.haiguan.info), there were 1,089 enterprises having records of automobile exports in the first half of the year. Six of them had the export monetary volume of 200 million US dollars (including groups, similarly hereafter), and the total export volume reached 1.86 billion US dollars which was 32.1 percent of the total volume of the same period. The export monetary volume of 8 enterprises was between 100 million to 200 million, and the total export volume reached 1.08 billion US dollars which was 18.5 percent of the total volume of the same period; In addition, There are 7 enterprises whose export monetary volume were 50million to 100 million US dollars, 69 enterprises whose export monetary volume were 10 million to 50 million US dollars, 57 enterprises whose export monetary volume were 5million to 10million US dollars, 169 enterprises whose export monetary volume were 1 million to 5 million US dollars and 94 enterprises whose export monetary volume were 0.5 million to 1 million US dollars. The number of all the above enterprises is 410 and the total export volume of them was 5.71 billion US dollars which were 98.3 percent of the total export volume in the same period of last year.

Ranking of the Automobile Exporting Enterprises
China’s auto exports enterprises in the first half of 2012 include Chery Automobile Co., Ltd., Great Wall Motor Co., Ltd., Shanghai of Geely International Trade Co., Ltd., Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Co., Ltd., Shanghai GM Dong Yue Motors Co., Ltd.. Among them, the top five state-owned enterprises in export volume are: Chery Automobile Co., Ltd., Shanghai Geely International Trade Co., Ltd., Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Co., Ltd., the Beijing Foton International Trade Co., Ltd., China First Automobile Group Import and Export Corporation; the top five foreign-invested enterprises in export volume were: Great Wall Motor Co., Ltd., Shanghai GM Dong Yue Motors Co., Honda Motor (China) Co., Ltd., Hafei Motor Co., Ltd., Jiangxi Jiangling Import and Export Co., Ltd.; the top five private enterprises in export volume were: Chongqing Yuan Group Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Co., Ltd., Chongqing Lifan Industry (Group) Import and Export Co., Ltd., Zhejiang Gio Import and Export Co., Ltd., Changsha Futian automobile Technology Co., Ltd., and the Wuhan Dongfeng Automobile Foreign Trade Co., Ltd.