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Fresh vehicle buys still strong in July

By Li Fangfang (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-08-08 08:25

China's vehicle sales continued their stellar performance in July, the worst period of the year, putting the industry back on the fast growth track and also giving further impetus to the nation's economic recovery.

In July, vehicle sales stood at 1.09 million vehicles, surpassing the million mark for the fifth consecutive month and clocked an impressive year-on-year growth rate of 63.57 percent, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) said on Friday.

More impressively, the sales including cars, sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and other passenger vehicles touched 832,593 units, surging 70.54 percent from the same month last year, a new high since January 2006, said the association.

In the first seven months, nearly 5.4 million passenger vehicles were sold in the mainland, 30 percent more than last year, driven by the government's stimulus policies and market's natural demand.

"The July sales figures are far beyond my expectations and indicate that the industry has come out of the downturn shadow, helped by the pick up in SUVs and multi-purpose vehicles," said Cui Dongshu, deputy secretary-general of the National Passenger Car Information Exchange Association (NPCIEA).

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"The rosy passenger vehicle numbers in the first six months are largely due to the robust sales of minivans and small-engine capacity cars, and thanks to the favorable steps from the government," said Cui.

According to Cui, MPV sales peaked 14.8 percent year on year to 17,518 units last month. "Robust sales of MPVs, which are largely used for corporate purposes, is another indicator of the economic recovery."

In July, sales of SUVs went up by 72.4-percent year-on-year to 59,053 units.

The NPCIEA had earlier indicated that China's auto sales could reach 11 million units this year. Following the brisk performance in the low season, the association has now raised the annual forecast to more than 12.5 million vehicles.

According to figures released by Autodata Corp, the US sold 997,000 vehicles in July, the best numbers since August 2008 as the government supporting policies took effect.