Carmakers face more China woes as stock rout saps sales

Beijing

CARMAKERS in China may be forced to come up with more drastic mitigation measures when July sales results released from this week likely reveal a fourth month of contraction after a stock-market crash sapped consumer sentiment.

Many Chinese who put money in the mainland bull market in the first half of 2015 had to delay big-ticket purchases such as cars, analysts said. But a crash from mid-June erased as much as US$4 trillion in share value in under a month. What is left of their money is now locked in stocks as many try to avoid losses.