Mazda forecasts 22% growth in its 2010 China sales

Mazda Motor Corp. expects to sell 220,000 vehicles in China this year, up about 22% from 2009, a spokesman said Monday.

The forecast would mean a sharp slowdown in the Japanese company's growth rate in China this year. Last year, when China surpassed the U.S. to become the world's biggest auto market, Mazda's sales in the country surged 41% to 179,679 vehicles.

But the forecast also puts Mazda's expected growth rate ahead of what analysts are predicting for the industry overall in China.

According to its latest forecast, J.D. Power & Associates expects sales of light vehicles—passenger cars and commercial vehicles—in China to rise 7% to 13.8 million vehicles this year. It said passenger-vehicle demand is likely to increase 10% to 9.6 million vehicles.

Last year, overall light-vehicle sales in China rose 48% to 13 million units, J.D. Power estimates. Analysts say generous incentives and stimulus measures rolled out by China's government in 2009 may have pulled forward demand from this year.

J.D. Power said in its monthly sales report on China that the market also faces risks this year from efforts by the government to rein in growth, to prevent booming credit and investment from triggering inflation and asset bubbles. "Manufacturers' optimism remains high for 2010," the research company said in its report. "However, we note an emerging risk in the [Chinese] government's tightening policy."