Brilliance Auto aims to sell 300,000 vehicles in '09

Shanghai, December 31 (Gasgoo.com) Chinese automaker Brilliance Auto, a partner of BMW, said it would boost sales to 300,000 units in 2009 through expanding production lines and launching new models, Beijing Youth reported, citing Brilliance Auto president Qi Yumin.

For the year ending Dec. 28, Brilliance sold 285,119 vehicles, down 5% from last year, while the carmaker initially set a goal of 10% sales increase earlier this year. Qi said the significant decline of Zhonghua Junjie, Brilliance Auto’s flagship, led to the failure of the annual sales target.

The carmaker claimed it was in abundant cash now as it posted annual sales revenue of 41 billion yuan and turned in 2.9 billion yuan profit tax. Moreover, Brilliance Auto bought back some shares of its subsidiary— the listed company Brilliance China Automotive worth 500 million yuan recently.

Qi expected that the domestic auto industry would recover in the second half of 2009 as the Chinese government pushed out massive stimulus policies to boost vehicle sales. The auto market will increase by 7%-8%, said Qi. Brilliance Auto expects to see sales up by 5% next year to 300,000 units, the same level of 2007.

The automaker plans to start construction of its second plant at the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang for A-class cars by the beginning of 2009. The new plant, expected to reach annual production capacity of 150,000 units, will produce three A-class models including sedan and cross models on the FRV platform.