CHINA’S car sales in the third quarter declined 13 percent from the same period a year earlier, the first drop in a year, as the global shortage of chips continued to ensnare the world’s biggest auto market.

Sales of passenger cars in September fell 17 percent from a year earlier to 1.58 million vehicles, the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) said yesterday, the worst monthly decline since March last year.

China is no exception as the world’s major automakers grapple with a historic chip shortage. The shortage intensified in the third quarter as COVID-19 cases surged in Southeast Asia, including in Malaysia, where semiconductors are sent for testing and packaging.

In recent months, auto plants in the United States and Japan have halted production because of the chip shortage. In the United States, auto sales fell 25 percent in September, according to Wards Intelligence.

In September, sales of what are known as new energy vehicles, mostly electric vehicles, more than tripled in China from a year earlier to 334,000 vehicles, the CPCA said.

Tesla Inc. sold 56,006 China-made vehicles in September, the highest since it started production in Shanghai about two years ago, CPCA data showed. (SD-Agencies)