CX Daily: China’s Used-Car Dealers Face a Bumpy Ride as Price Wars Intensify
TOP STORY
Used cars /
China’s second-hand car market is growing rapidly as more motorists take to the road. Industry players have little to celebrate, however, as the fledgling sector is still like the Wild West while profit margins are shrinking.
Some 16.26 million vehicles changed hands in China during the first half of this year, half as many again as the same period in 2023. Sales of used cars grew 7% year-on-year to 9.38 million, while 9.84 million new passenger vehicles were sold, according to the China Automobile Dealers Association (CADA).
FINANCE & ECONOMY
Housing /
China is piloting a housing pension system in 22 cities including Shanghai, which aims to create a long-term mechanism to maintain aging residential buildings.
This initiative follows several high-profile incidents, such as the 2022 residential building collapse in Changsha in which 54 people died, that highlight the need for more robust housing safety measures.
Fiscal /
China’s national fiscal revenue contracted 1.9% year-on-year in July while income from land sales for local governments fell by the largest in two years. This comes at a time when the country is grappling with weak industrial production, sluggish consumption and a prolonged slowdown in the property market.
The decline in fiscal revenue is mainly attributed to a 4% drop in tax revenue, reflecting the ongoing economic challenges and the impact of previous tax cuts.
Banks /
Standard Chartered Bank has appointed Jean Lu as its China CEO and executive vice chair of its China subsidiary, the U.K. banking group announced Tuesday.
Lu, a veteran banker with three decades of experience, will oversee operations on the Chinese mainland, the bank said in an announcement.
Quick hit /
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Finance Movers and Shakers /
BUSINESS & TECH
Robots /
China’s humanoid robot industry is on track for a spate of consolidation as many developers are struggling to commercialize products, a venture capital investor said at a recent industry event.
The situation is compounded by the fact that there are no unified technical and design standards in the industry, Cao Wei, a partner at Lanchi Ventures, said during a group interview on Friday at the World Robot Conference in Beijing.
New energy /
More than two dozen of China’s provinces and cities have set new-energy storage installation targets for 2025, with these regions’ total planned capacity more than doubling the country’s target for the year, according to an industry expert.
As of July, 26 provinces and cities had laid out plans to bring the total installed capacity of their storage facilities for renewable energy projects to 86.6 gigawatts (GW) by the end of 2025, according to data released Sunday by Chen Haisheng, chairman of industry group China Energy Storage Alliance.
Quick hits /
China Auto Roundup /
Long Read /
As China’s economic speedbumps have driven more people into the ride-hailing industry, it’s becoming ever more challenging for drivers to make ends meet.