Vehicle sales on the rise in China

The automotive market may be struggling worldwide but there’s no stopping the push for motoring in China.

Sales of domestically produced vehicles in the country shot up by 64 per cent in July compared to the same month in the previous year. This means that sales topped the one million unit mark for the fifth month in a row, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. In total sales reached 1.09million units, while passenger car sales jumped 71 per cent to 832,600 units.

Indeed vehicle sales have been red hot in the country throughout the year. For the first seven months of 2009, vehicle sales were more than 7.18million units - that’s up 23 per cent year on year. What’s more is that domestic production rose to more than 7.1million units, up an incredible 20.23 per cent. Passenger sales meanwhile have totalled 5.37million units over the same period - an increase of 31 per cent compared to the same period last year.

You only need to draw a comparison with the USA to see how well the Chinese automotive market is fairing. By comparison, light duty vehicle sales in the USA in July were 977,824 units - that’s down 12 per cent year on year. Indeed January-July LDV sales were 5.8million units, a fall of 32 per cent compared to 2008.

One company that really had reason to celebrate in China was ChangAn Auto Company, which saw its sales volume increase by more than 82 per cent year on year in July.

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