BEIJING: Honda Motor Co’s chief executive said the Japanese automaker has seen a dip in China sales compared with last year amid jitters about the country’s economy and financial markets, but still expects growth over the full fiscal year.
“Recently stocks in Shanghai have basically plummeted … (Honda’s) sales also seem to be declining slightly,” newly appointed CEO Takahiro Hachigo said yesterday. But Hachigo, recently named to the top job at the automaker having previously headed the automaker’s Chinese subsidiary, expressed confidence younger buyers — still a source of growth in the world’s biggest auto market — will help boost sales over the fiscal year through March 2016 compared with the previous 12 months.
“I think this year’s car sales (in China) will top last year’s,” said Hachigo, adding that the Chinese auto market, the world’s biggest, still has potential to grow much more. As fears for the health of the world’s second-biggest economy have grown, Chinese stocks have tumbled as much as 30 percent since mid-June, also dragging Japanese share prices to three-month lows yesterday.
