China Imports More Cars

BEIJING, Oct 2, 2003; Xinhua news bureau reported that China imported 117,024 units of autos from January to August in 2003, up 43.7 percent on a year-on- year base, according to statistics with Chinese customs.

For the whole year of 2002, the first year since China's accession to the World Trade Organization, China imported a total of 127,000 units of automobiles.

Last year, China reduced automobile tariffs, with tariff rates for cars over 3.0 liters engine capacity dropping from 80 percent to 50.7 percent, and for vehicles of less than 3.0 liters, dropping from 70 percent to 43.8 percent.

According to China's commitment to the WTO, China will gradually reduce its car import tariff rate and eventually lower it to 25 percent and cancel the import quota by July 2006.

Experts say the decrease of car tariffs as well as the domestic demand growth for sedans led to car import surges. Sales of sedan cars in China jumped 82.4 percent in the first six month this year to 842,800 units. Over half of the imported vehicles are sedans, according to Chinese figures.

Officials with the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said the price level of imported vehicles this year has been growing remarkably, which demonstrated the increase and diversification of domestic car supplies and the rise of Chinese consumers' purchasing power. About 23 percent of autos imported by China were off-road vehicles.

Japan, the Republic of Korea, Germany, the United States, Sweden, Poland, France and the United Kingdom are major exporters of sedans and off-road vehicles to China, according to the Ministry of Commerce.