AsianFin -- Chinese car dealers on Tuesday urged automakers to halt the practice of offloading excessive vehicle inventory onto dealerships, citing mounting pressure from aggressive price wars that are squeezing cash flow, eroding profits, and forcing some dealers to close.

The appeal follows an official call over the weekend for the auto sector to end damaging price competition.

“Dealer conditions have become even more severe,” the China Auto Dealers Chamber of Commerce said in a statement, pointing to a fresh wave of heavy discounting since the second quarter.

The chamber proposed that automakers set reasonable annual production and sales targets and refrain from pushing excess inventory onto dealers, preventing forced stockpiling.

It also called for shorter payment cycles to dealers and emphasized that dealers should not be pressured to exit networks or shut stores under the guise of “optimizing” sales channels.

Local reports last week highlighted the closure of a major dealer of Chinese EV maker BYD in Shandong province, where at least 20 stores were found abandoned or shuttered.