Ford Motor and its crosstown competitor General Motors both reported their lowest quarterly sales in China since the coronavirus pandemic began, owing to a recurrence of Covid cases in the nation and persistent worldwide supply chain issues.

Ford said it sold 120,000 vehicles in the second quarter, a roughly 22 percent decrease from the previous year and the company’s weakest sales in Greater China since fewer than 89,000 units were sold in the first quarter of 2020, when government-imposed Covid restrictions halted production.

In a late Thursday announcement, Ford stated that sales in June increased tremendously due to the relaxation of restrictions, with overall sales exceeding 50,000 units, up 3 per cent year over year and 38 per cent month over month.

“The pandemic’s resurgence in the past few months challenged us to overcome supply chain and logistics obstacles to positioning Ford for growth in the second half of the year,” Anning Chen, president and CEO of Ford China, said in statement.

However, there may still be difficulties ahead. Mainland In the last few days, China’s daily Covid case count, including those without symptoms, has risen from a handful to approximately 200 or 300 new cases. According to Ting Lu, chief China economist at Nomura, the number of cities banning local transportation due to Covid has more than doubled in a week to 11, up from five a week earlier.

GM announced a 35.5 per cent drop in second-quarter sales in China to 484,200 vehicles on Wednesday, its lowest sales since 461,700 vehicles in the first quarter of 2020.

“The pandemic’s resurgence in the past few months challenged us to overcome supply chain and logistics obstacles to positioning Ford for growth in the second half of the year,” said Anning Chen, president and CEO, Ford China. “Ford’s business recovery in China is proceeding at full speed as vehicle production has reached pre-pandemic capacity and customer traffic at our dealerships has progressively improved. Our new product lineup, including the all-new Ford Mondeo and all-new Lincoln Zephyr, has been well received by Chinese customers.” 

(Adapted from SeekingAlpha.com)