Jaguar's Sales In China Double, Cars Help Japan Balance Trade With China

Those who have an ideological beef with China should keep one thing in mind: Without China, the car industry (to name just one segment) would be dead. China’s unbridled appetite for cars keeps the whole industry humming. Two examples:

Jaguar announced that they doubled their sales in China in the first half year of 2010. Sure, selling 1,521 Jags in six months may not be much in the grand scheme of things. But it’s an indicator of China’s buying power. China already is the world’s largest market for Daimler’s S-Class and makers of luxury cars the world over would be collecting welfare checks would iut not be for the Middle Kingdom. Jaguar celebrates the best half-year sales record in the seven years they have been in China. The second quarter was even better: Up 129 percent year on year. Their best-selling car is the Jaguar XF, selling 1,370 vehicles. The new Jaguar XJ added 140 units to the count, reports Gasgoo.

In not quite related news, The Nikkei [sub] reports Japan’s trade deficit with China shrank to a paltry $5b in the last fiscal year. That despite of a very strong yen, and without the daily drama of calling China a currency manipulator. Since the mid-1990s, Japan had a whopping trade deficit with China. Not only was Japan flooded with cheap Chinese goods. Japanese companies added to the imbalance by shipping materials and parts to China, where they were turned into finished goods and came back to Japan.

Now, Japan more and more exports expensive goods to China. Passenger vehicles, trucks and other transport equipment accounted for 10.12 percent of the value of Japanese exports shipped to China last fiscal year. Around 96,400 vehicles were shipped to China in the January-May term, up 50 percent from a year earlier, according to the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association. “Japan could very well enjoy trade surpluses with its neighbor in the near future,” says the Nikkei.