China car sales up 82% y/y in August -think tank

Chinese car sales surged 81.7 percent in August year-on-year, as rising consumer confidence and official policies boosted demand.

The figure cited on Monday by the Development Research Centre, a think-tank under China's cabinet, was based on a restricted survey of major cars.

The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers is scheduled to announce the official August car sales figure, based on wider data, later this week.

Overall vehicle sales exceeded 1 million units in August for the sixth straight month, helped by Beijing's policy initiatives, the state-owned Xinhua news agency said on Monday.

The country's vehicle sales should easily exceed 10 million units this year, for the first time, as combined sales in the first seven months have reached 7.18 million units, Xinhua said, citing Zhu Yiping, a spokeswoman from the auto association.

Meanwhile, Chen Bin, chief director of the industry coordination department at China's top economic planner, urged automakers to "keep their heads cool" to prevent overcapacity.

China's planned total vehicle capacity will be much higher than demand and if that continues the country's auto capacity utilisation rate will be lower than 70 percent in the coming years, Chen was quoted as saying when addressing an industry forum.

He did not provide the country's existing auto capacity or its utilization rate.

Chen also said it remained unclear whether auto sales growth in the country can be sustained in the long term, as the explosive growth this year was mainly down to government policy initiatives.