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China's auto sales surpass US for 3rd month

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-04-08 20:50

Preliminary figures show auto sales in China reached about 1.03 million in March, exceeding US sales for the third month in a row, media reports said Wednesday.

Visitors look at a Mercedes-Benz C-Class car at an auto show in Beijing, China, Thursday, March 2, 2009. [Agencies]

Data from 14 major auto makers, accounting for roughly 90 percent of total sales, totaled 1.026 million, the Shanghai Securities News and other newspapers said, citing Chen Bin, head of the Department of Industry at China's main economic planning agency.

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Full industry data due to be released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers in coming days could push March auto sales in the Chinese mainland, the world's second-largest auto market, to a monthly record, the reports said.

China's industrywide auto sales in March 2008 totaled 1.06 million, it said.

Americans bought 857,735 new vehicles in March, down 37 percent from the 1.36 million sold in the same month a year earlier, according to Autodata Corp.

But a 25 percent jump in US sales from February raised hopes that the worst may be over for an industry battered by global economic malaise and financial catastrophe.

China is bound to eventually overtake the US as the world's largest auto market, and recent developments have accelerated that trend, with Chinese vehicle sales in January and February exceeding US monthly sales for the first time ever.

China's first-quarter sales may exceed those in the US, Chen told a shipbuilding conference in Beijing. Sales for the full year are forecast to exceed 10 million units for the first time ever.

With sales slumping elsewhere, China is one of the few bright spots for the ailing industry.

General Motors Corp. said Wednesday that it sold 137,004 vehicles in China in March, up 24.6 percent from a year earlier. Its minivehicle joint venture, SAIC-GM-Wuling, saw sales surge 38 percent to 90,784 vehicles.

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