VEHICLE SALES in China reached record highs in March, extending gains from the previous month, helped by government policy measures.
A total of 1.1 million vehicles sold last month, up from 1.06 million in March 2008, which previously posted the highest monthly sales, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM).
China’s auto market has recei-ved a boost from policy support measures that include tax incentives for small cars and subsidies. The country’s vehicle sales growth slowed in 2008 to its lowest annual rate in more than a decade as the global financial crisis took its toll.
Chery Automobile, maker of China’s best-selling compact car, sold more than 35,000 cars in March, hitting its second monthly record this year.
Ford also expects to grow faster than the overall China market this year, banking in part on policy support to lift sales of its new Fiesta, rolled out last month.
Beijing also pledged to subsidise farmers who trade in high-emission light vehicles for fuel-efficient ones.
That has boosted sales of General Motors’ light commercial vehicle venture in South China by 38.1 per cent from a year earlier, to 90,784 units in March.
CAAM did not provide a breakdown of the country’s March mini van and truck sales – mostly generated in inland and rural areas – but said overall sales of cargo vehicles jumped 44 per cent from 2008.
Industry executives and analysts, however, were divided on whether the boom in March could last the rest of 2009.
Klaus Maier, president and chief executive of Mercedes-Benz in China, said he believed the market had picked up again, citing a 50 per cent year-on-year jump in sales of the luxury saloon in China last month.
But other analysts were wary of forecasting a sustained uptrend from one month’s data, noting that March was traditionally a peak season for vehicle sales in the country.
– Reuters