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☆ Staging partial recovery, Russia's April car sales leap 170.4% y/y - Autostat
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

May 4 (Reuters) - Car sales in Russia leapt by 170.4% year-on-year in April, analytical agency Autostat said on Thursday, with the country's bruised car market staging a partial recovery from the soaring prices and reduced deliveries of the same month last year. All of the top 10 models sold in April were either Russian or Chinese, Autostat's data showed. Avtovaz earlier on Thursday said its April sales had jumped 225% year-on-year in April and rose 18.4% month-on-month. Lada held 33% market share in April, up from 23% a year ago, but the growing share of Chinese models is most noticeable. Sales of South Korea's Kia (000270.KS) and Hyundai, and Japan's Toyota (7203.T) were down 67%, 68.1% and 67.8%.

☆ China smartphone sales rise to more than 70% of Russian market
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/3] A girl uses her smartphone on the street in Moscow, Russia August 1, 2022. REUTERS/Evgenia NovozheninaApril 17 (Reuters) - Chinese smartphones made up more than 70% of the Russian market in the first quarter of 2023, consumer electronics retailer M.Video-Eldorado (MVID.MM) said, up from around 50% last year. "Demand for brands from China in quantity terms increased by 42% relative to last year, and their total share was over 70%," M.Video added in a statement on Monday. The Kremlin has also moved to allow Russian companies to ship in some products, including smartphones, without the license holder's permission in so-called parallel imports. Last year, M.Video and mobile operator MTS (MTSS.MM) began selling discounted and used smartphones, offering Russian consumers cheaper alternatives as Western sanctions contributed to economic contraction and falling wages.

April 12 (Reuters) - Sberbank (SBER.MM), Russia's dominant lender and a leading technology company, is finding graphics cards the trickiest hardware item to replace in the absence of Western providers, CEO German Gref said on Wednesday. Sberbank needs the cards for its artificial intelligence services and super computers and Western sanctions over Moscow's actions in Ukraine have curbed Russia's access to some technology imports. "We depend first and foremost on technology called hardware," Gref told lawmakers in the Federation Council, Russia's upper house of parliament. "And probably the most critical position is graphics cards, microelectronics - video cards for high-performance computing." In the absence of Western imports, local companies have enhanced efforts to increase domestic production and cushion the blow.

☆ BMW on track for 2023 target despite slight Q1 sales fall
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] An electric-powered BMW iX xDrive 50 car is seen during a media preview at the Auto Zurich Car Show in Zurich, Switzerland November 3, 2021. By region, BMW only saw sales growth in the United States, with an 11.4% increase to 89,750 car sales. BMW remained confident about its 2023 guidance despite a "challenging business environment", the company said in a statement. "The BMW Group is on track for slight sales growth in the full year 2023," said Pieter Nota, management board member responsible for customer, brands and sales. Electric vehicle sales in BMW's core brand more than doubled in Q1 year on year to 55,979 units.

☆ Factbox: Economic reliance on China that EU wants to 'rebalance'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen leaves after an EU summit at the European Council building in Brussels, Belgium March 24, 2023. Von der Leyen said the bloc could not decouple from China, but needed to reduce risk and "rebalance" economic ties. China is the EU's third largest outside market for its cars, and some 15% of EU car exports head there. Chinese EV exports to the bloc shot up to 6.9 billion euros in 2022 from less than 800 million euros in 2020. CLEAN TECHThe EU imports 80% of its solar panels from China, importing 21 billion euros worth in 2022.

Stepan, 28, who has increasingly driven Chinese cars when using carsharing services, is among those that need convincing. If you want my honest opinion, the difference (with Chinese cars) is massive," he told Reuters at Moscow's Favorit Motors dealership. When buying his new Chinese car, Alexander, 74, looked for one which encompassed Swedish technology. While Chinese cars are increasingly filling the gap, the lack of reputation remains an issue, said auto industry expert Sergey Aslanyan. Chinese brands' market share reached 37.15% in January-February, up from 9.48% a year earlier, Autostat and PPK data showed.

That left used cars accounting for almost three quarters of all cars sold, up from 55% in 2021, the data shows. Russians turn to used cars as production falls, prices rise"Money flowed into the used cars market as prices for second-hand cars held up, while at the same time the structure of the new cars market changed significantly," Autostat CEO Sergei Udalov told Reuters. At 2.5 million roubles, his Skoda was around 1 million roubles more expensive than it would have been a year earlier, but still 1 million roubles cheaper than a brand new version. Imports of used cars jumped last year, with those from Japan leading the way. Japan has curbed exports of high-value cars to Russia, but used cars imported by individuals fall outside the restrictions.

Cobalt has lost share to lithium as the Chinese EV market in particular pivots towards non-cobalt battery chemistry. The abrupt turnaround in both narrative and price has led to a surge in trading activity on the CME cobalt contract as producers and consumers respond to the shifting landscape. CME cobalt price, total volume and market open interestCHANGE OF GEARCobalt's fortunes are still tied to the EV sector but the relationship is changing. That eye-watering growth rate would be stronger still were it not for a shift towards non-cobalt battery chemistries, led by China, the world's largest EV market. COBALT FUTURES TAKE OFFOne beneficiary of this turnaround in cobalt market dynamics has been the CME (CME.O), which has seen activity in its cobalt contract mushroom since the middle of last year.

☆ Exclusive: Chinese grab Russian car market share after Western rivals depart
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Gleb Stolyarov | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Reuters GraphicsRussia's new passenger car and LCV sales were 46,403 in November, the Association of European Businesses (AEB) said on Tuesday, and sales should reach around 600,000 for this year overall. "There is little production of Western car brands and few imports, so the market is divided between the Russian and Chinese car industries," Russian automotive analyst Vladimir Bespalov told Reuters. Russian cars satisfy demand at lower prices - up to about 1.5 million roubles ($23,961), and Chinese are also taking over the Western niche of prices above 2.5 million roubles. In one high-profile case, a Chinese car is masquerading as Russian one. In monetary terms, the share could surpass 40% of what he expects will be a 1.5-trillion-rouble market in 2023.

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