Shanghai Auto Show: Honda Forecasts China Sales
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SHANGHAI, April 20, 2007; Reuters reported that Japanese carmaker Honda Motor Co. said on Friday it expected annual sales in China to increase to around 400,000 units.
Sales in China for Japan's second-biggest automaker jumped 50 percent in January-February to 56,368 units, outperforming the overall market's 26 percent growth, powered largely by its Civic sedans.
In 2006, its sales grew 26 percent to 323,000 units.
In January, Honda trimmed its China sales forecast for the year to end-March 2007 by 20,000 cars to about 360,000, saying competition in the world's second-biggest car market was tougher than expected.
Honda has local joint ventures with Dongfeng Motor and Guangzhou Automobile Group. Including a 50,000 units-a-year export-only factory, Honda now has the capacity to build 530,000 cars a year in China.
Honda said it would export 40,000 cars to Britain this year.
Guangzhou-Honda sales rose 9.1 percent in January-March to 63,052 units.
