SAIC Jan-May sales near 1.4 mln units, up 26%

Shanghai, June 10 (Gasgoo.com) - SAIC Motor's vehicle sales in the first five months rose about 26% from a year earlier, to 1.39 million units, xinhuanet.com reported today, citing the company's chairman. The auto giant expects to sell more than 2 million vehicles in 2009.

SAIC's vehicle joint ventures with General Motors and Volkswagen AG did well during the period, while average monthly sales of its own-brand vehicles exceeded 6,000 units, the company's chairman Hu Maoyuan told a shareholders' meeting yesterday.

Shanghai GM, General Motors' passenger car joint venture with SAIC Motor, saw its sales in the first five months rise 12% year on year (y/y) to 228,000 units. The venture sold 56,011 vehicles in May, up 50% y/y, overtaking its April's sales growth of 34.7% (at 55,245 units).

Sales were notably stronger at GM's joint venture with SAIC and Wuling Automobile Co., which primarily makes mini commercial vehicles. Sales at SAIC-GM-Wuling rose 49% in the first five months of this year to 442,000 units.

Shanghai VW, a passenger-vehicle joint venture between SAIC and Volkswagen AG, sold 59,754 vehicles in May, up 57% from a year earlier.

When asked if SAIC can challenge the 2 million-units sales mark for the full year, Hu said: "It's possible if there are no major changes in the [recovering] economy."

SAIC, China's largest automaker and a Chinese partner of GM and VW, had set a conservative sales target of 1.8 million units this year, slightly lower than 1.83 million in 2008.