December 02, 2008

Steel and energy cost increases push Chinese made auto prices up

According to the latest figures from the price supervision center, which is under the National Development and Reform Commission, the top economic planner that Chinese domestically manufactured vehicle prices edged up by 0.15% MoM in March.

The price supervision report based on the country's 36 big and medium sized cities showed that the domestically made vehicle prices in the first quarter rose 1.05% compared with the end of last year, boosted by the price rise of steel products and energy. China's consumer price index a key measure of inflation was up by 8.3% in March following an 8.7% rise recorded for the previous month.

The National Bureau of Statistics said prices of raw materials, fuels and power supply increased 9.8% in the first three months of this year 5.7 percentage points higher than the level for the same period last year.

Experts held that other factors including the rise of labor cost and the country's tight monetary policy which raised the thresholds of enterprises to get loans from banks also added to the cost rise pressure of domestic auto makers.