Apart from the Chinese car market, things are actually going well at BMW. While arch-rival Mercedes sells fewer and fewer vehicles from month to month, the Munich-based company was able to increase sales by almost nine percent to 588,300 cars in the most recent reporting period. After five declines in a row, it was BMW’s first sales increase in a year and a half. However, the company also benefited from the fact that numerous cars could not be delivered in the comparable quarter of the previous year due to problems with brakes. On Tuesday evening, the board led by chairman Oliver Zipse adjusted the annual forecast downwards. The stock market’s reaction followed on Wednesday morning: The DAX group’s shares immediately fell in price by more than five percent in early trading and also pulled down the prices of other car stocks. The stock market investors obviously rated BMW’s weakness in China more strongly than the sales successes on the markets in Europe and America. In fact, BMW is struggling with the same difficulties as all other Western car manufacturers in the world’s largest car market: the local competition is building good electric cars and offering them at rock-bottom prices. The Chinese market leader BYD in particular is heating up the price war with high discounts. BMW now had to admit that the targeted sales in China remained below expectations – in the first three months, BMW sold around 465,000 vehicles, eleven percent less than in the previous year. The group also has to financially support its own dealers in the Middle Kingdom: “The effects of the significant reduction in commissions by local Chinese banks in connection with the brokering of financing and insurance products to end customers also require financial support to strengthen dealer profitability,” it said in the statement.More on the topicOn the American market, BMW is feeling the consequences of President Donald Trump’s customs policy. The board assumes that the EU will implement the tariff reduction agreed with the USA for the import of cars and car parts retroactively to August 1st. But the customs refund in the high three-digit million range is no longer expected for this year, but rather next year. Due to these burdens, the Management Board expects a slight decline in profits. The profit margin before interest and taxes is now expected to be five to six percent, instead of the previous five to seven percent.
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