Nearly 63 years ago, China took its first steps toward becoming the world’s biggest automobile producer. A truck rolled off the line at the aptly named First Automobile Works. Back then, global peers probably thought China’s efforts were risible. No one is laughing now. China’s auto market is a quarter larger than Europe’s.
But sales are falling fast. Despite rising inventories, more manufacturing capacity is coming on track. Chinese auto stocks are cheap. They may become cheaper still.
Bad news on Chinese car sales is hardly a novelty. But it has not lost its capacity to alarm. On Monday, Hong Kong-listed Geely Auto announced sales would be flat this year at about 1.5m units. On Tuesday, the shares plunged 11 per cent. That puts its shares on a historically cheap forward price-to-earnings ratio of 6-8 times.