Guests stroll previous a Ford Escape Titanium on the Shanghai Auto Present in Shanghai on April 17, 2019.
Greg Baker| AFP | Getty Photos
DETROIT – Ford Motor joined its crosstown rival General Motors in reporting its worst quarterly gross sales in China because the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, amid a resurgence of Covid-19 cases within the nation and ongoing international provide chain issues.
Ford stated it offered 120,000 automobiles throughout the second quarter, a roughly 22% decline from a yr earlier and its worst gross sales in Higher China because the fewer than 89,000 items it offered throughout the first quarter of 2020, when government-imposed Covid restrictions introduced the nation’s manufacturing to a standstill.
In a release late Thursday, Ford stated gross sales in June improved exponentially with easing of restrictions as total gross sales exceeded 50,000 items, up 3% yr over yr and 38% month over month.
“The pandemic’s resurgence previously few months challenged us to beat provide chain and logistics obstacles to positioning Ford for progress within the second half of the yr,” stated Anning Chen, president and CEO of Ford China, in assertion.
However there might nonetheless be challenges forward. Mainland China’s daily Covid case count, together with these with out signs, has surged from a handful of instances to round 200 or 300 new instances within the final a number of days. The variety of cities proscribing native motion resulting from Covid greater than doubled in per week to 11 as of Monday, up from 5 per week earlier, in response to Ting Lu, chief China economist at Nomura.
GM on Wednesday reported a 35.5% decline in its second-quarter gross sales in China to 484,200 automobiles, its lowest gross sales since 461,700 automobiles throughout the first quarter of 2020.
–CNBC’s Evelyn Cheng contributed to this report.
