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| - New car sales in France plunged over 50 percent in May due to the coronavirus lockdown, industry figures showed Monday, but automakers noted the first signs of a recovery in the industry. Figures from Spain, another major market, painted a similar picture, of an industry inching back slowly after devastating losses in March and April. In France, all non-essential businesses, including auto dealers, were closed from March 17 to May 11, in a bid to slow the spread of COVID-19. The measure pushed down auto sales 72 percent in March and almost 90 percent in April, reflecting a worldwide trend. Renault announced on Friday it would cut nearly 15,000 jobs, including 4,600 at its core French operations, to try to steer out of a cash crunch exacerbated by the crisis. But despite the 50.3 percent fall in May, the first signs of a recovery have emerged, the French Auto Manufacturers' Association (CCFA) said. "We saw a clear recovery at the end of the month, that is to say that the entire distribution and delivery system as well as the orders were unblocked," said CCFA spokesman Francois Roudier. "The figure at the start of the month was very low, very close to the previous month, but progressively with the reopening of auto dealers, the deliveries, the distribution and also the orders have recovered," he told AFP. But the outlook remains "very unclear for the first time in years," he said. For the whole of 2020, the industry sees a drop of between 20 and 30 percent, but these figures "are to be taken cautiously as we still lack a lot of information," particularly concerning the recovery, Roudier said. New car sales in Spain plunged 73 percent in May compared with a year earlier but picked up from April as the country tried to get back to a semblance of normality. For May, some 34,337 vehicles were sold in the country, up from just 4,163 in April as the government imposed one of the tightest lockdowns in Europe, industry group ANFAC said. Restrictions are being lifted in phases, with all expected to be gone by end-June. "The figures reflect the re-opening of dealerships," ANFAC said in a statement, also noting that they still reprsented the second worst performance on record after that of April. In May 2019, some 125,600 cars were sold in Spain. At the same time, the May 2020 figures do not necessarily mark a turnaround because some of them were orders previously made and only now being delivered, the dealerships group GANVAM said, warning of a likely worse fall again in June. After the April figures came out, ANFAC said it expected auto sales to be down 40-45 percent over the full year. bur/bmm/ach
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