BMW exports cars to China as demand outstrips supply

Soaring Chinese demand for BMW cars has outstripped local production capacity, requiring the world's leading premium automaker to ramp up exports of German-made vehicles, the firm said Tuesday.

BMW plans to ship 10,000 of its 3 Series models from Munich, southern Germany, to Chinese markets, personnel director Harald Krueger told the Financial Times Deutschland.

"Rising demand in China has meant that our plants in Germany and the United States are at full capacity," said Krueger.

In the first half of 2010, Chinese sales more than doubled and Krueger acknowledged that "we did not expect such strong growth."

Output from the German automaker's plant in Shenyang, northeastern China, cannot keep up with demand and construction on a second plant there has just started, forcing German workers to put in overtime.

In late April, the company raised its sales target for China, now the world's leading auto market overall, to 120,000 vehicles in 2010 from 100,000 in 2009.