FRANKFURT (MNI) – Eurozone new car registrations were stronger in
February than one year ago, data from industry group ACEA showed
Wednesday.

Excluding Cyprus and Malta, Eurozone passenger car registrations
were 0.6% higher y/y in February after a marginal 0.6% drop in January.

Registrations in western Europe (EU15) were 0.3% higher on the
year.

German registrations were up 15.2% on the year. The level of orders
in German car factories is currently over one-third higher than last
year, VDA president Matthias Wissmann noted in a release his group
issued earlier this month. “That gives cause for optimism for the coming
months,” he said.

New registrations will exceed the 3.1 million mark, Wissmann
predicted, sounding slightly more upbeat than in December, when he said
new registrations would hit that total. In 2010, 2.9 million new
passenger vehicles were registered in Germany.

Since consumer spending is expected to give an unusually strong
boost to German economic growth this year, and car sales were subdued in
2010 following 2009 car scrapping premium, annual figures will probably
be positive for the German car market.

French new registrations gained 13.2% in February, partly
reflecting a favorable base effect from the drop in new car sales of one
year ago, when the public car-scrapping premium was slashed by E300 to
E700.

The French government cut the remaining scrapping premium to E500
by the end of this year. Since the cut-off date to claim the bonus is
the end of March, registrations through the end of 1Q will likely remain
strong.

In Italy, new car registrations declined by 20.5% on the year.

A recent European Commission survey showed that Italians’
intentions to make large purchases over the coming 12 months rose
modestly in February. However, the level remains well below the norm.

New car registrations in Spain also lost significant ground,
falling 27.6% over the same period. The Spanish consumption market is
being dampened by staggering unemployment, which has remained entrenched
at around 20% since the summer.

Among other reporting countries, the strongest rise was noted in
Estonia, where registrations jumped 109.6% compared to February 2010.
Conversely, Greece had the largest decline, with registrations dropping
49.1%.

— Frankfurt bureau: +49-69-720 142; email: frankfurt@marketnews.com —

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