This post is informed by stories from Automotive NewsWire and USA Today.
China:
China’s Minister of Industry and Information, Miao Wei, reported recently that China exported a total of 824,000 vehicles in 2011, a 50% increase over the prior year. He said he expects China will export more than 1 million units within the next year or two.
Mr. Miao credited the export increase in 2011 to the increasing number of vehicles available in China for export and the maturing of the nation’s domestic manufacturers.
What do you think that means?
In plain English, what it really means is that the decline in domestic demand for vehicles in 2011 in China made it imperative for China’s auto manufacturers to export vehicles-just to keep their assembly plants operating.
USA:
According to USAToday on the topic of U.S. made automobile exports, “More than 1.5 million new cars were exported last year, up 38% from 2009, Commerce Department data show. Last year’s automotive exports were valued at $36.7 billion.”
Here are 2 questions to spur your thinking.
Question 1: Which Automaker exported the most autos from the US last year?
Question 2: Which country put punitive duties on automotive exports from the other?
What is our point?
I remember when the Chinese were planning on exporting auto’s to the U.S.
Why are the Chinese selling cars everywhere else in the world but not here in the U.S.?
We don’t have the answer to that yet, but we think that it may be a “tell” that there is more hardball to be played in the field of trade relations… and currency valuations.
What do you think?