GM head sees China remaining top car market

The head of U.S. auto giant General Motors said on Tuesday he believes China will maintain its position as the world's number one auto market ahead of the United States.

GM President and Chief Executive Fritz Henderson told a news conference in Shanghai that although he expected U.S. demand to recover after a dismal year, he saw China's record sales this year as more than a one-time occurrence.

"It's not a blip," Henderson told reporters.

China overtook the US in auto sales for the first time in January and hit 9.66 million units in the first nine months of 2009.

Sales are forecast to surpass 12 million for the full year, according to China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

US full-year auto sales are expected to be 9.22 million vehicles based on a seasonally adjusted annualised rate, according to Autodata calculations using September figures.

"We think China will continue to grow and grow at a very significant pace," Henderson said.

He spoke on his first visit to Shanghai since the automaker shifted its global operations headquarters from Detroit to China's business hub after emerging from bankruptcy protection on July 10.

In a sign of China's growing significance, all the US automaker's operations outside North America will now be run from Shanghai, the company said.

"This year was not the way we would like to have seen it because in fact what we've had is China growing at a very robust pace and the US plummeting. I think it would be nice to establish a race in growth," Henderson said.

"The US is crawling out of a very deep recession ... there's no reason to believe the U.S. will stay at the lowest levels since World War II."

He said it was "quite possible" a deal would be signed this week to sell a 55-percent stake in GM's European unit Opel to Canadian parts manufacturer Magna International and Russian state-owned lender Sberbank.

He said progress was being made on outstanding issues. These have included union negotiations and wrangling between European countries over financing.

He declined to comment on reports that GM sold its gas-guzzling Hummer brand to construction equipment maker Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Company for 150 million dollars less than the 500 million dollar-valuation reported in June.

"I read the same article you did regarding the 150 million dollars but I'm not in a position to comment," he said, adding the value of the deal was confidential.

Tengzhong has said it expects to get regulatory approval for the deal by early next year.

"They are confident and we will support them in whatever they need," Henderson said, regarding the Chinese approval process.