China Automobile Trading Co Ltd, the largest vehicle importer in the country, said more SUVs were imported than any other type of vehicles in November.

China imported 45,000 SUVs in the month, a number down 19.6 percent year-on-year, which was the smallest decline seen among vehicle imports for November.

The same month saw 30,400 cars imported, a number down 33.3 percent, and 2,900 multi-purpose vehicles, down 31.9 percent.

Luo said the sharp decline, which exceeded sellers' expectations, caused dealers of imported vehicles to have surplus inventories and led more than half of them to record losses.

"The high increase of 80 percent in 2010 and the more than 30 percent in 2011 in the imported sector led dealers to target a 40 to 50 percent increase for this year," Luo said. "Because of that, many of them had placed a lot of orders."

Luo advised dealers to slow down their pursuit of expansion plans and to explore new lines of business, saying that will help lower the risks entailed in their current emphasis on new vehicle sales.

"They should pay more attention to trade in second-hand vehicles, automobile financing and after-market services," Luo said.

lifangfang@chinadaily.com.cn

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