Car market maintains momentumz

China's automobile market showed an unexpected strong momentum with double-digit growth in the first half of the year, making it likely that total sales in the world's largest vehicle market will exceed the 20-million unit barrier for the whole year.

However, Chinese automakers are facing challenges because of slowing exports, as well as increased competition from foreign rivals, which may result in production cuts, analysts said.

The latest figures from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers showed that in the first six months, China's total automobile production and sales both exceeded the 10-million unit barrier for the first time ever, with a year-on-year growth of more than 12 percent, outstripping the association's previous expectations.

The association attributed the robust momentum to the sales surge in the passenger vehicle sector, led by sedans and sports-utility vehicles. From January to June, China delivered 8.66 million passenger vehicles in total, up 13.8 percent year-on-year, according to the association.

Significantly, the sales increase was "propelled by the top international joint ventures that dominate the passenger vehicle market," said Namrita Chow, a Shanghai-based senior analyst with consulting firm IHS Automotive.

"The figures count total wholesale vehicle sales from 70 automakers in China, among which the top players remained the major State-owned automakers with strong international joint ventures, led by Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp and followed by Dongfeng Motor, FAW Group, Chang'an Auto and Beijing Automotive Industry Corp," said Chow.

"SAIC continues to dominate the market, but relies on its joint ventures with Volkswagen and General Motors for the bulk of its sales," Chow added.

The CAAM statistics also showed the combined sales of the country's top 10 automakers accounted for 88.15 percent of the total amount, 0.9 percentage point higher than in the same period last year.