Shanghai (ZXZC)- China's vehicle inventory alert index (VIA), which reflects the inventory pressure on automobile dealers, rose 4.3 percentage points year on year in Sept. 2022, according to the China Automobile Dealers Association (CADA).

The VIA stood at 55.2% last month, edging up 0.5 percentage points from the previous month.

The index in Sept. was still above the official warning threshold (50%).

The CADA said China's auto market was in a traditional peak season in Sept., when the market demands were supposed to evidently recover. Nevertheless, some cities faced losses on new vehicle sales due to the sporadic occurrence of the coronavirus cases in the first half of Sept.

There were some tailwinds for auto sales recovery in the second half of Sept., including the sales promotion by automakers and dealers, the preferential policies by both central and local governments, the roll-out of new vehicle models, and the effect of the Mid-Autumn Festival and back-to-school season.

The association revealed China's auto retail sales are anticipated to reach roughly 2.1 million units in Sept., jumping around 20% from the year-ago period.

In Sept., the VIAs of imported & luxury brands and Chinese indigenous brands reached 52.1% and 58.3%, sliding 0.9 and 0.4 percentage points over a month ago, respectively, according to CADA's data. Meanwhile, the index for mainstream joint-venture brands grew 2 percentage points month over month to 55.6%.