China auto sales up 4.6% last month

Taipei Times - Auto sales in China, the world’s largest car market, rose by 4.57 percent last month from a year earlier, data from an industry group showed yesterday.

A total of 1.27 million vehicles were sold in the country last month, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) said in a statement.

That brought total sales in the first two months of the year to 3.16 million units, up 9.71 percent from a year earlier, the association said.

Growth in passenger car sales — which account for most of the country’s auto sales — is expected to slow this year due to measures imposed by some major cities to restrict the number of vehicles on the road, plus the withdrawal of policies that encouraged -automobile purchases.

“We think the growth in both sales and production would not increase as fast as what we saw in the previous two years,” the association said.

ALMOST A MILLION

Passenger vehicle sales increased 2.57 percent year-on-year last month to 967,200 units, it said.

In the January-February period, 2.5 million passenger vehicles were sold in the country, up 10.5 percent from a year earlier, it said.

China overtook the US in 2009 to become the world’s biggest car market.

Auto sales in the country rose more than 32 percent last year to a record 18.06 million units as the economy quickly powered out of the financial crisis to grow by 10.3 percent last year, its fastest pace since 2007.

With economic overheating now a growing concern, the Chinese government has phased out policy incentives such as subsidies for purchases of small-engine cars.

Some cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, have even introduced measures such as annual quotas of new car license-plates to restrict purchases as part of efforts to ease chronic gridlock and control air pollution.

YULON

In related news, the largest Taiwanese automaker Yulon Group said on Tuesday that it posted a near-record high total revenue of NT$15 billion (US$500 million) last year and plans to launch four new models and invest NT$13 billion to improve its manufacturing capability this year.
 

Speaking at a press conference, Yulon Motor Co, president Chen Kuo-rong said last year’s profits were the highest in five years and the company would recruit an additional 1,200 employees to meet the growth in demand.

Yulon Group sold more than 98,000 cars in 2009, earning a total revenue of NT$6 billion and gaining a market share of 31 percent, Chen said, adding that profits from car sales accounted for more than 40 percent of the group’s income.

This year, the company expects to sell 107,500 cars nationwide, for a 35 percent share of the local market of between 330,000 and 360,000 units.

Yulon Group plans to invest NT$500 million to add 18 more dealerships that will sell cars under its Luxgen brand.