China auto sales up 53% to 7.5 mln units in Jan-May

Shanghai, June 9 (Gasgoo.com) In the first five months of the year, vehicle sales in the Chinese market grew 53.25% from a year earlier to exceed 7.5 million units, Xinhua News reported yesterday, citing an industry association.

China's auto sales in May rose 28.35% from a year earlier to 1.44 million units, but the figure was down 7.5% from the April level, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said yesterday in a statement. The growth in May sales notched the slowest pace over the past 13 months.

Sales of passenger cars climbed 55.06% from a year ago to 5.68 million units in the first five months while that of commercial vehicles increased 48.13% to 1.93 million units. Passenger car sales in May grew 26% to 1.04 million units, but down from 1.11 million sold in April.

Global automakers are looking to China, which last year overtook the United States as the world's biggest auto market by selling 13.64 million vehicles, to boost sales, though China's sizzling growth in car sales has started slowing back to normal.

Auto production in China rose 55.59% to 7.54 million units in the January-May period. Last month's output grew 27.86% year on year to 1.42 million units but declined 9.39% from April.

The association estimated that both auto sales and production in China would exceed 15 million units this year, according to the statement released yesterday.