Maserati is expecting a sales improvement in the second half this year after disappointing performance in the second quarter, Mike Manley, CEO of brand owner Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), told analysts during a conference call on July 25.

The biggest challenges the company faced and would continue to face are "all focused on China," Manley said. 

Maserati's global net revenues in the second quarter was registered at 568 million euros, dropping 47 percent from about 1.1 billion euros year-on-year, according to FCA's semi-annual financial report.  

The company attributed the recent sales plunge mainly to impact from the Chinese market.

Maserati's shipments to China dropped nearly 69 percent to 1,500 units in the second quarter of this year from 4,800 units in the second quarter last year, as shown in a press release the company issued on July 25.

Wang Cun, director of the import committee of the China Automobile Dealers Association (CADA), said China announced in May a plan to cut import tariffs on foreign vehicles and auto parts from 25 percent to 15 percent as of July 1, so potential Chinese customers were holding back in June expecting for a better price.  

Meanwhile, as the country started to add a 25 percent additional import tariff to vehicles made in the United States on July 6, certain U.S. brands had seen a sales increase in June compared with the previous month.

Overall, while China's automobile imports tumbled 87.1 percent in June, they rose 50 percent in July year-on-year, according to statistics from the CADA and the General Administration of Customs. 

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