Azernews.Az

By Bloomberg

PSA Peugeot Citroen’s deliveries rose for the first time in four years in 2014 as China overtook the automaker’s home country of France as its biggest market.

Sales increased 4.3 percent to 2.94 million cars and light commercial vehicles from 2.82 million a year earlier, boosted by demand for the 2008 and 3008 crossovers as well as the 308 hatchback, the Paris-based manufacturer said. That’s still about 18 percent lower than in 2010, when Peugeot, Europe’s second- biggest carmaker, reported its last full-year growth with record sales of 3.6 million autos. Chinese sales surged 32 percent.

“The figures look OK,” Sascha Gommel, a Frankfurt-based analyst at Commerzbank AG who recommends buying the shares, said by phone. “It’s not so much the volume growth that’s important for Peugeot right now” as the company pushes to charge more for its cars. “The pricing improvement may play a much more important role.”

Peugeot, which may also post a full-year profit for the first time since 2011, has teamed up with Chinese manufacturer Dongfeng Motor Corp. to expand outside Europe, which accounted for about 60 percent of the company’s deliveries last year. Peugeot is cutting costs by restructuring its Russian and Latin American operations, selling its scooter business and moving its headquarters from central Paris.

Peugeot rose as much as 1 percent and was trading up 0.3 percent at 10.89 euros as of 9:45 a.m. in Paris. The stock has risen 20 percent in the past 12 months, valuing the carmaker at 8.52 billion euros ($10 billion).

Chinese Target

The French manufacturer and Dongfeng have a target of selling 1.5 million vehicles annually in China by 2020. Peugeot’s group sales in the country last year amounted to 734,100 vehicles, with the market accounting for 22 percent of the new DS brand’s global deliveries.

Demand in China was propelled by the Peugeot brand’s 2008 and 3008, the introduction of the 408 sedan and the Citroen marque’s C-Elysee sedan, the division’s best-selling model in the country.

“The Chinese clientele wants international brands,” Maxime Picat, head of the Peugeot brand, said on French radio station BFM today. “Consumers see them as offering modernity and a guarantee of quality, and that’s why these brands are growing strongly.”

Group sales in Europe rose 8 percent to 1.76 million vehicles, helped by the success of the Citroen C4 Cactus sport- utility vehicle and the Peugeot 308, which was named the European Car of the Year at the Geneva motor show in March. Sales in France amounted to about 637,700 autos.

In contrast with gains in China and Europe, Peugeot’s sales plummeted 34 percent last year in Latin America to about 200,000 vehicles amid economic slowdowns in Argentina and Brazil. In its Eurasia market, which includes Russia and Ukraine, Peugeot’s sales plunged 41 percent to 43,800 autos. In Africa and Middle- East, the French manufacturer sold 25 percent fewer cars last year at about 169,400 vehicles.