China: at 2.5 million cars/month -> 30 million cars annualized rate
US annualized rate: 15 million
From the Motley Fool -- a very superficial article, but nice fodder for tonight's cocktail party:
China produced just 1.56 million automobiles in 1998, and by 2012, deliveries of passenger automobiles has reached 2.37 million per month. Experts are now revising 2015 forecasts of China's crude-oil consumption to 13.6 million barrels per day, a level that is triple where the country was in 1998.From less than 2 million vehicles in 1998 -- the entire year, China is now delivering close to three times that number every month. I remember a talking head on CNBC last week referring to China as a country with "abject poverty." There may be a lot more poverty in China than we can imagine, but to trivialize China as another Bangladesh (of the past) is harming a lot of investors.
China isn't the only growing source of demand, either. India's oil consumption grew 40% from 2001 to 2009, and other emerging markets around the world are more than making up for any reduction in demand from the United States. As I said, it's really not us -- it's everyone else.
By the way, that US automobile annualized rate at the top was a WAG. But I just checked. See for yourself at Reuters.