China's Car Sales Up 69% In First 9 Months of 2003

SHANGHAI October 21, 2003; Dow Jones reported that China sold 1.34 million cars in the first nine months of the year, up 69% from the same period last year, prompting the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers to upgrade its full-year sales forecast to 1.9 million units from 1.5 million.

Sales of domestically made cars rose 50% on year to 1.1 million units last year as prices fell sharply amid fierce competition and car makers launched several new models to cater to increasingly affluent Chinese consumers.

The strong growth trend has continued throughout this year.

Several auto giants - General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co., Toyota Motor Corp. and Volkswagen AG - are either ramping up their output or increasing investment in their respective joint ventures to tap the fastest growing auto market in the world.

Car production surged 87% on year to 1.41 million units in the first nine months of the year.

A KPMG report last month warned of a possible major overcapacity problem in the next two years due to overexpansion.

Sales of motor vehicles, including cars, trucks and buses, rose 30% on year to 3.12 million units during the January-September period, the trade group said.

Overall vehicle sales are expected to reach 4.3 million units this year, up from the group's original projection of 4.0 million made at the start of the year, said spokeswoman Zhu Yiping.

Vehicle production rose 36% to 3.2 million units during the nine-month period.

The statistics are only for domestically made automobiles.