Dongfeng Motor Corp, now China's second-largest automaker, recently said it plans to produce and sell 2.9 million vehicles in 2011, an increase of about 10 percent over last year, but far lower than last year's 37.8 percent rise.

The market as a whole is expected to cool to between 10 and 15 percent growth this year, according to China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, compared to 30 percent in 2010.

Dongfeng also announced in a statement that it aims to generate 380 billion yuan in revenue in 2011 and maintain strong profitability.

Headquartered in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei province, the company runs joint ventures with foreign carmakers Nissan, Honda, PSA Peugeot-Citroen and Kia. It also produces its own-brand cars and trucks.

Dongfeng surpassed the 2 million benchmark for the first time last year, when sold 2.61 million vehicles.

The robust growth enabled it to enlarge its overall market share to 14.5 percent by the end of 2010.

Its revenue surged 35 percent to 345 billion yuan and profits jumped 65 percent.

The sound performance powered Dongfeng to the second place among China's automakers, behind only its eastern counterpart Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp, which delivered 3.5 million vehicles last year.

First Automobile Works and Chang'an Automobile Group narrowly followed Dongfeng in sales. Both moved more than 2 million vehicles last year.

Dongfeng President Zhu Fushou said the automaker has a big advantage in its balanced product mix - 75 percent passenger cars and the rest commercial vehicles, almost the same structure as the overall market.

The lineup strengthens the company's ability to resist market risks, Zhu said.

But its own-brand products remain a weak point, he admitted.

Xu Ping, board chairman of Dongfeng, said the company must enhance independent innovation and accelerate development of its own-brand cars in the year ahead.

Dongfeng had no self-developed sedans until 2009 when it launched the Fengshen S30, a mid-class model priced between 70,000 to 100,000 yuan.

It later introduced the Fengshen H30 hatchback.

China Daily

(China Daily 01/24/2011 page18)