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China's vehicle imports rise 40% in first 10 months

By Yu Hongyan (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2008-12-04 19:31

China imported 342,200 units of vehicles in the first 10 months of this year, up 39.68 percent year-on-year, and 28,000 units more than the whole of 2007, according to figures released by the Customs on Wednesday.

Related readings:  Imported luxury cars to face possible consumption tax rise  Vehicles on roads up 5% year-on-year  Tax hike boosts prices of big cars  China's auto imports rise 35% in value in first 8 months

Imports in the sport utility vehicle (SUV) sector have witnessed a year-on-year increase of 62.45 percent to 179,900 units by October, and the country imported 127,500 units of sedans and 20,800 units of mini-buses in the first 10 months, increasing 16.9 percent and 40.41 percent respectively year-on-year. The three types of vehicles constituted 95.91 percent of vehicle imports in the country.

The imported rigid vehicles accounted for 4 percent of the China's auto market in terms of quantity, and 15 percent in terms of value.

Judging from the overall market, there were 5.64 million passenger vehicles sold in China in the first 10 months, growing 11.07 percent from the same period last year. Sales volume of sedans amounted to about 4.2 million units, up 10.40 percent, while the figure of multi-purpose vehicles (MPVs) fell to 169,000, down 7.67 percent.

In the same ten-month period, sales volume of SUVs increased by 31.58 percent over the previous year to 371,800 units, and crossover vehicles saw an increase of 11.3 percent year-on-year to 902,100 units.

The SUV sector is a bright spot in China's gloomy auto market, as consumers rushed to the dealerships in August, one month before the revised auto consumption tax took effect. In the same month, China saw its the first monthly auto sales decline in two years, with passenger car sales down 6.24 percent.