Dongfeng Motor's Jan PV sales down 3.1% y/y

Passenger vehicle sales at Dongfeng Motor Group Co, China's third-biggest automaker, in January dropped 3.1 percent from a year earlier, outperforming a 7.8 percent fall in the country's overall car market.

Dongfeng Motor, which operates manufacturing ventures with Honda Motor and Nissan Motor, sold 62,560 cars last month, a source told Reuters on Wednesday.

"The data is pretty solid compared with the market average. Nissan and Honda cars remain attractive to many buyers," said the source.

Dongfeng Motor's car venture with Nissan recorded a 6.8 percent rise in sales in January from a year earlier while its tie-up with Honda also showed positive growth, said the source.

However, its overall vehicle sales fell 19 percent in January to 72,483 units, as sales of commercial vehicles slumped about 60 percent to fewer than 10,000 units, the source added.

Industry analysts blamed Dongfeng's weak commercial vehicle sales, mostly medium to heavy duty trucks, on a slowing economy as well as stricter emission standards imposed in July last year.

China's overall commercial vehicles were also hit, with sales in January totalling 125,100 units, down 20.35 percent from December and 36.46 percent from a year earlier, official data showed.

Car sales growth in China slowed to single digits in 2008 for the first time in at least 10 years, spurring the government to come up with a raft of incentives, including halving the purchase tax of small cars.

The government also unveiled a 4 trillion yuan ($585.4 billion) economic stimulus package and a large portion of which will be used to boost the country's infrastructure.

"That may help bolster demand for medium to heavy duty trucks this year which is good news to automakers like Dongfeng," said Zhang Xin, an analyst with Guotai Junan Securities.

Dongfeng Motor also operates a car manufacturing venture with PSA Peugeot-Citroen.