U.S. auto giants to export $2.2 bln products to China

General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Group will export 81,500 cars worth about $2.2 billion to China from 2008 to 2010, as a result of the Fourth China-U.S. Strategic Economic Dialogue on June 18, 2008.
 
General Motors was the biggest winner, receiving approximately $1 billion orders, followed by Ford with over $800 million and Chrysler with $400 million.

The big orders will be helpful to hold back the downturn of the three U.S. car giants, which together incurred a 23.5% sales decline in May 2008. The US car market saw an 11% sales drop in May as a whole, the seventh consecutive drop. The higher price of oil close to $4 a gallon was driving down demand of pick-up trucks and SUVs.

China imported 314,000 cars worth $11 billion in 2007 and 103,000 cars worth $3.76 billion during the first quarter of this year. The increasing car import from the US in both value and volume is expected to impose larger threat to European, Japanese and South Korean carmakers in the Chinese market.