China’s auto market appears poised for a rebound in March after a slow Lunar New Year season, with Toyota Motor Corp posting strong monthly sales and a dealer survey indicating rising demand. 
The Japanese automaker yesterday said its sales in the world’s largest auto market jumped 40.6% in March from the same month a year earlier to 100,500 vehicles. That compared with a 6.3% on-year gain in February. 
On the same day, the China Automobile Dealers Association said at its monthly news briefing that one-third of dealers it surveyed said demand increased in March, up from a mere 2.7% in February, with the survey predicting stable demand this month. 
Car sales growth in China ground to a halt last year as the economy expanded at the slowest pace in 25 years while the stock market slumped. Sales rebounded from October due to a government tax cut on small engine cars that carries through the end of this year.  Analysts and industry insiders are now watching whether that rebound can be sustained. 
Further turmoil in the stock market could hurt buyer demand or bubbling real estate prices could prompt Chinese to invest more in real estate and put off buying a car, said Yale Zhang, Shanghai-based managing director of Automotive Foresight. 
Such scenarios could derail the consultancy’s prediction of up to 10% sales growth this year, Zhang said. Even as demand rebounds in March, “the pressure on the overall industry is still large,” said Hui Yumei, a vice director for the dealers association.  Roughly 45% of dealers in the survey said transaction prices fell in March as dealers competed through discounts.