Despite massive earthquake and tsunami in Japan last March that interrupted production for months, Japanese carmaker Nissan Motor’s luxury unit Infiniti reported a 60 percent rise in 2011 China sales.

The full-year delivery of 19,075 units maintains China as its second-largest market worldwide for the second straight year. The company said in a statement that it plans to boost sales by 50 percent this year to about 30,000 units and add more than 30 new dealerships.

Infiniti currently has nearly 60 authorized dealer outlets in the country designed to meet its global standard and ensure premium services.

Its product portfolio in China includes the M, EX, FX, QX and G Series, covering models ranging from sedan, crossover, SUV to coupe and convertible.

More models are expected to be introduced this year to meet increasingly diverse consumer demand, including a long-wheelbase M Series sedan, a hybrid M Series car and the refurbished FX and EX Series, according to the company.

Last November Infiniti announced it would move its global headquarters from Japan to Hong Kong, igniting wide speculation it could have plans to produce cars in China jointly with Dongfeng Motor Corp, which also is a partner of its parent company Nissan.

The company has denied it reached a final decision on local production in China.

But according to a local newspaper report last month, officials in Dalian confirmed the plan, saying the brand will produce cars in the northeastern port city, probably starting from 2014.

If true, Infiniti would be the first Japanese luxury brand to have production in China.

Via: ChinaDaily.

Net sales of the Swedish Volvo group in 2011 reached a record high level of 310.3 billion Swedish kronor ($46 billion), up 17.2 percent compared to 2010, said the company in its annual fiscal report on Friday.

Volvo’s income after taxes last year rose to 18.1 billion Swedish kronor, up 61.6 percent from the year before, while the company registered the highest net sales, operating income and margin, said the report.

In the fourth quarter of 2011, the company’s net sales increased by 18 percent year on year to 86.5 billion Swedish kronor, higher than what analysts had earlier estimated.

Meanwhile, the income after taxes of the fourth quarter amounted to 4.8 billion Swedish kronor, a 40.5 percent rise from the same period in 2010, according to the report.

Volvo CEO Olof Persson highlighted increased profitability in the truck business as he commented on the fiscal report.

According to him, truck deliveries worldwide rose 21 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011 year-on-year, and the truck brands of Volvo group has gained some 26 percent in the European market.

However, since autumn last year, there was a decline in demand for trucks in Europe. “With the uncertainty in the European economy, it is difficult to forecast demand for trucks in 2012,” said Persson.

Customers’ needs to replace old trucks with new ones and stricter emission standards which will come into force in 2014 will, however, contribute to a gradual improvement in 2012, Persson said.

Via: ChinaDaily.

After a year of sluggish growth partly due to a massive earthquake and tsunami in Japan last March, Toyota’s luxury unit Lexus aims to boost sales in China by more than 50 percent to 88,000 units this year. The company said in a statement that by the end of the year, it will have 100 authorized dealer outlets in operation, up from the 81 dealerships to date.

Lexus sold 56,303 vehicles in China last year – a modest increase of 6 percent over its 2010 tally of about 53,000 – at the same time China’s luxury market soared by nearly 40 percent to 950,000 units.

A major reason for the shortfall was the Japan earthquake that caused production halts at most of the nation’s carmakers and components suppliers. Production by Lexus only started to recover in July.

By the end of last year, the brand had sold more than 210,000 cars since it arrived in China in 2005. Its import lineup now includes 15 models, four of them gasoline-electric hybrids.

Lexus said that this year it will further increase proportion of its cars with small-displacement engines and hybrid powertrains sold in China.

“Change” is the keyword for its development in the Chinese market, the company said in a statement.

Sales by Lexus in China doubled every year from 2005 to 2007, yet the pace slowed in 2008 and 2009 due to increased taxes on cars with large engines. At that time, almost all imported Lexus models had engines larger than 3 liters.

Lexus then began to introduce more cars with small engines as well as hybrid models. It regained some momentum in 2010 with delivery of about 53,000 cars, more than 65 percent of them powered by small engines.

Yet the Japanese brand’s sales in China still trail far behind its German competitors.

Audi sold more than 300,000 cars in the country last year and BMW moved about 232,000. Sales by Mercedes-Benz surpassed 198,000. All three have local joint ventures to produce cars at more competitive prices than imported models.

Analysts said that without local production, Lexus is not likely to see significant growth in sales and market share in China.

But the company has no apparent plan for a local production facility. Lexus cars are currently built only in Japan and the US. Even its Japanese counterpart Infiniti, the luxury brand by Nissan, is considering local production after only four years in China. After imports began in 2007, Infiniti’s sales are now about 40 percent of those by Lexus.

Via: ChinaDaily.

Top Chinese automaker SAIC Motor Corp Ltd has forecast a rise of more than 40 percent in 2011 net income on solid demand for German and American marques made at its Shanghai ventures.

“Growth was under expectations, but investors could be more bothered about the outlook for 2012,” said Cao Xuefeng, head of research at Huaxi Securities in Chengdu.

The world’s second-biggest economy is cooling, with annual growth easing to 8.9 percent in the fourth quarter of last year from 9.1 percent in the third, and a further slowdown is expected to keep pressure on corporate profits this year.

SAIC, which makes cars in partnership with General Motors Co and Volkswagen AG, sold more than 4 million vehicles last year, up 12 percent, largely outperforming a 2.5 gain by China’s overall vehicle market.

Its tie-up with GM sold 18.5 percent more cars in the year, with sales at its venture with VW up 16.4 percent, according to company data. The two ventures comprised 59.8 percent of SAIC’s overall tally.

The acquisition of some assets from parent Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp also helped boost earnings, SAIC said in a statement.

SAIC is expected to announce its full-year earnings on April 4.

Many other local automakers without strong foreign ties, including FAW Car Co Ltd and Chongqing Changan Automobile Co Ltd, projected declines in their 2011 earnings.

FAW Car expected earnings for last year to plunge 50-80 percent to between 372 million and 930 million yuan ($58.8-146.90 million). Changan, a Ford Motor Co and Mazda Motor Corp partner, said it expected to post net income of 900 million to 1 billion yuan, down 51-56 percent.

Via: ChinaDaily.

Great Wall Motor Co Ltd, China’s top manufacturer of sport utility vehicles and pick-up trucks, aims to deliver 23.3 percent more vehicles in 2012 from last year. Great Wall said it aimed to sell 600,000 vehicles this year. The total last year was 486,800, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

Its export target for this year is 100,000 vehicles, up 17.6 percent. Great Wall said earlier that its 2011 net profit rose a market-beating 29 percent, as demand picked up.

The company made a net profit of 3.47 billion yuan ($560 million), higher than the 2.7 billion yuan it recorded in 2010 and better than market expectations for 3.3 billion yuan.

Great Wall Motor, which went public in September 2011, aimed to sell 500,000 vehicles last year.

Via: ChinaDaily.

Dongfeng Motor Corp, China’s second-largest carmaker by sales, last week announced a 2012 sales target of 3.3 million vehicles, an 8 percent increase from last year.

The auto group based in Hubei province in Central China said in a statement that it also aims to improve sales revenue to 420 billion yuan this year, up from 400 billion yuan in 2011.

The Chinese partner of Nissan, Honda, PSA Peugeot Citroen and Kia, Dongfeng produces cars and trucks carrying both foreign marques and its own brands.

The company sold 3.06 million vehicles last year, an increase of 12.25 percent over 2010, significantly better than the modest increase of less than 3 percent in the overall market.

Its passenger vehicle sales – including cars, SUVs, MPVs and minivans – totaled 2.33 million units last year. It also delivered about 729,700 commercial vehicles.

The robust performance lifted its market share by 1.43 percentage points to 16.51 percent, the company said.

Last month Dongfeng announced a planned investment of 30 billion yuan to boost sales and quality of its own-brand vehicles over the next five years. Its goal is to sell 3 million of its own vehicles in 2016, up from about 1 million last year.

The company said that a third of the 3 million target will be commercial vehicles, with another third passenger vehicles carrying nameplates of Dongfeng’s wholly owned brands.

The remaining 1 million vehicles will include cars made at its joint venture with Taiwan’s Yulon Motor Co and new local brands developed at its partnerships with Nissan and Honda.

The company also said it aims to increase the ratio of R&D investment to 3 percent of revenues, up from the current 2.36 percent.

The Shanghai-based SAIC Motor Corp remains at the top of all domestic auto groups with sales of more than 4 million vehicles last year, an increase of 11.9 percent over 2010.

The manufacturer has three successful joint ventures with yearly sales surpassing 1 million units: Shanghai Volkswagen, Shanghai GM and SAIC-GM-Wuling.

FAW Group based in the northeastern city of Changchun sold about 2.7 million vehicles last year to take the third position following Dongfeng.

Chang’an Automobile Group headquartered in Chongqing in the southwest ranked the fourth after failed to achieve its original sales goal to deliver 2.4 million vehicles.

Beijing Automobile Group, the fifth-biggest carmaker by sales, reported growth of 2.7 percent in 2011 to 1.5 million vehicles.

Its revenue for the first time surpassed 200 billion yuan and its profit surged 46 percent to 15.8 billion yuan due to its lucrative partnerships with Mercedes-Benz and Hyundai.

Via: ChinaDaily.

Riding the tide of booming luxury car demand in China, BMW reported sales of more than 232,000 vehicles on the mainland last year, a surge of 37.6 percent over 2010.

The record tally, including 217,068 BMWs and 15,518 MINI cars, consolidated China’s position as the carmaker’s third-largest market for a second year after the US and Germany.

BMW last year sold more than 300,000 vehicles in the US and some 297,000 in its home market.

“Based on the current development, if China’s car market keeps performing (strongly), in the medium term it could very well become BMW’s largest market,” said Olaf Kastner, president and CEO of BMW Brilliance Automotive Ltd, the joint venture between the German carmaker and its Chinese partner.

“But do we have to rush? No.”

Kastner noted the importance of balanced development in different regions rather than over-reliance on a single market. “This I believe is the real success story of BMW Group – achieving outstanding results in a balanced way,” he said.

Joint venture success

That balance includes BMW’s China portfolio, a combination of locally produced 3 Series and 5 Series cars and a diverse import lineup including the flagship 7 Series saloon and the X family of SUVs.

“We had another record year (last year) and I must say (it was) particularly successful for the joint venture,” Kastner said.

The partnership with Brilliance Auto produced and sold 94,400 cars last year, a 65.8 percent increase over 2010. Its new long-wheelbase 5 Series contributed about two-thirds of total sales by the joint venture.

Launched in August in 2010, the model tailored to Chinese consumers proved an immediate success. Now it has about 30 percent of the mid-sized premium sedan market, according to Kastner.

And not only China’s market has shown interests in the model. Last December, the joint venture began shipping a few 5 Series cars abroad to emerging markets in Africa and the Middle East to test their potential, making BMW the first premium carmaker to export China-made cars.

“It’s another milestone for a young joint venture,” Kastner said of the partnership established in 2003. “But the local customer comes first.”

The company will limit exports of the model, giving priority to domestic supplies since buyers in China still have to wait two to three months to get their vehicles, he said.

Doubling sales

BMW has been in fast lane over the past few years, with sales more than doubling from about 90,000 in 2009 when Kastner joined the joint venture as chief executive. He remains optimistic about the year ahead.

“BMW and the joint venture are ready to embrace a golden Year of the Dragon,” he said.

There are good reasons for the confident outlook, he said, since the joint venture will mark new highs by opening a new plant, building two new models and launching a new brand.

BMW Brilliance now operates a plant in the northeastern city of Shenyang with the capacity to make about 100,000 vehicles annually. Its new second plant, also in the city, is almost ready to begin production.

Set to open in the first quarter this year, the plant is designed to make 100,000 vehicles yearly with the capacity to double that if needed.

BMW will produce its X1 SUV at the new factory, followed by a new-generation 3 Series model toward the end of the year.

“I am looking forward to a very successful launch of the locally produced X1,” said Kastner, noting that the versatile vehicle is a good fit with Chinese consumers and will offer better pricing than imported models.

Some of the X1 models will be equipped with a locally built four-cylinder turbocharged engine made at a new engine plant in Shenyang scheduled to begin operations later this year. It is the first BMW engine plant in the country.

Kastner is convinced there will be strong demand for the latest-generation 3 Series that will be launched in China in the fourth quarter this year. As with the long-wheelbase 5 Series, it is likely to have a long waiting list, he said.

The good news for Kastner and his team is that even as the current 3 Series nears the end of its lifecycle, it is still in high demand.

“People like our cars, they like the brand,” he said.

BMW Brilliance will also launch a new brand of locally produced new energy vehicles, Kastner said, without giving further information.

China’s market still has great room for growth over the long term, according to Kastner. He noted the country’s luxury car market accounts for only 7 percent of overall sales, while the ratio in the US is 14 percent.

He said the real growth will come in so-called tier three to five cities – smaller, less developed urban areas in China – that the company will initially tap through service outlets.

BMW now has about 290 dealer outlets in China. The network will be further expanded this year in both big and small cities, Kastner said.

Though he declined to give a specific sales forecast for the year, he noted the company “does not like to sell less than the previous year and we do not like to lose market share”.

“Quite the contrary,” he asserted.

Via: ChinaDaily.

General Motors predicts new record, on the back of another.

The Chinese new-car market is on track to top 20 million this year, the first country to do so. So says the boss of General Motors China, the biggest-selling brand in the world’s biggest car market. “I think it will nudge 20 million,” GM China President Kevin Wale said at the Detroit motor show.

China ended North America’s almost century-long dominance of the global car market in 2009 with 13.6 million sales, and grew from 18.3 million in 2010 to 18.7 million in 2011.

The US reached a peak of 17.8 million sales in 2000 but last year’s tally of 12.7 million sales (up from 11.7 million in 2010) is only marginally better than North America’s 1991 result of 12.5 million, as the country is still recovering from the 2008 Global Financial Crisis.

“We think passenger cars will go up 10 per cent and commercial vehicles will go up 5 per cent this year,” said Wale.

However, he warned, “we’ve never been right on a forecast yet”, a reference to how often car makers have under called the China market in the past. “But the demand is still strong, the retail market is still strong and people still want to get into new cars,” he said.

GM sales were up 8.3 per cent in China to 2.55 million, a new record – and eclipses sales of GM vehicles (2.1 million) in its domestic North American market for the third year in a row.

However, GM’s rival Ford hasn’t enjoyed the same success in China, selling just 520,000 vehicles there compared to 2.1 million in its North American homeland.

China’s second-biggest maker, Dongfeng (which has joint ventures with Nissan, Honda, Peugeot, Citroean and Kia) predicts new-car sales will rise by 8.8 per cent this year, taking the conglomerate’s tally to 3.3 million.

Volkswagen plans to build its 12th factory in China by the end of this year while fellow German car maker Audi will build a seventh and Hyundai is poised to build a fourth. Both Audi and

Hyundai sell more cars in China than in their domestic markets. Meanwhile Holden hasn’t been able to cash in on the growth of the world’s biggest car market.

Sales of the Holden Caprice-based limousine, assembled in China after Australian-made parts are shipped there in kit form and sold as a Buick Park Avenue, fell to 3300 in 2011, down from 3500 in 2010.

Wale said there were no plans to import the Holden Commodore to China in completed or kit form.

Via: Drive.com.au.

BEIJING – Sales of passenger vehicles in China increased by 2.8 percent from 2010 to 2011, the lowest growth rate recorded since 1999. The decline came as the growth of the country’s economy slowed and the government ceased favoring the industry with stimulus policies.

Last year, China saw sales of 13.7 million passenger cars, sports-utility vehicles, multi-purpose vehicles and minivans. In December, the sales number declined by 3.3 percent below what it had been in the same month a year ago, said China Passenger Car Association on Tuesday.

That helped prevent the number of automotive sales in China from exceeding 20 million last year. That sales number is to be released on Wednesday by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

It also brought an end to skyrocketing annual growth rates. The industry saw 46 percent growth in 2009 and 34 percent in 2010.

“The slowing down of the passenger vehicle market in 2011 is ensuring that the biggest automobile market in the world will return to a single-digit growth rate in the next several years,” said Rao Da, secretary-general of the association.

He said it will be hard to sell 20 million vehicles this year.

He predicted that the number of vehicle sales occurring in China will increase by 7 percent to hit 19.8 million this year. And that will occur even if the country does not adopt a fuel tax, which he expects will come into existence in the fourth quarter of this year or in early 2013.

“And the number of passenger-vehicle sales will increase by 12 percent above the number in 2011 to hit 15.55 million units.”

Xu Changming, deputy director of the State Information Center’s information resource department, also forecast that the number of China’s passenger vehicle sales will increase by 10 to 15 percent this year.

“The dramatic sales drop in 2011 was caused by the government’s lifting of policy incentives for car purchases, and it was further worsened by the country’s macro tightening measures,” Xu said.

He said Chinese automakers will be faced with more difficulties in the future.

Statistics from the China Passenger Car Association show that such companies saw their sales numbers decline by 7 percent from what they had been a year earlier. Even during the slowdown, those companies’ foreign rivals saw their sales of luxury vehicles increase by more than 30 percent from the year before.

Moreover, a recent survey conducted by the automotive information website Gasgoo.com suggested that only 15 percent of those in the industry believe that domestic vehicles will sell better than other automobiles this year.

Thirty-eight percent of the respondents placed their hopes for seeing that prediction come true into vehicles produced domestically by joint ventures formed between Chinese firms and foreign ones.

Twenty-nine percent believed that models built by joint ventures would sell well and 17 percent expected the good results to come from imported models.

Rao said that this year will be the most difficult year for domestic automakers, “not only because of declines in sales, but because of shrinking profits”.

“International automakers will pay more attention to the Chinese market since they believe that winning in China is the first step toward winning the global market,” Xu said. “Severe market competition will increase the distance between foreign brands and Chinese automakers.”

Via: ChinaDaily.

Ford Motor Co. said its vehicle sales in China totaled 519,390 units in 2011, an increase of 7%, as growth of commercial vehicle sales outpaced that of passenger vehicles. Sales in China by Ford and its joint ventures rose 10% in December to 49,238 vehicles, the company said in a statement.

Ford said its Changan Ford Mazda Automobile Co. passenger-vehicle venture sold 320,658 Ford-branded vehicles in 2011, up 5%. The venture sold 30,788 Ford vehicles in December, up 4% from a year earlier.

Jiangling Motors Co, Ford Motor commercial vehicle JV in China, saw its sales volume go up to 194,600 units in 2011, up by 9% compared with 2010.

Mr David Schoch, Chairman and CEO of Ford Motor China, said that the company plans to introduce 15 new models to the Chinese market by 2015 to further expand its presence in the world largest auto market.

Via: MarketWatch.com.