Strong local demand and a drop in prices have pushed China's vehicle imports during the first eight months of the year past the total 2001 figure.

The nation imported around 80,900 vehicles during the first eight months, up from 72,000 units last year, according to statistics released yesterday by the China Trading Center for Automobile Imports.

Vehicle imports in August alone reached 13,900 units, statistics showed.

"The vehicle import growth mainly resulted from strong domestic demand and price declines thanks to the nation's tariff cuts," said Ding Hongxiang, the center's deputy general manager.

China, which became a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) at the end of last year, cut its tariffs on vehicle imports from between 70 and 80 percent to between 43.8 and 50.7 percent at the beginning of the year.

Ding predicted vehicle imports will continue to grow during the remainder of 2002.

However, the growth of imports does not appear to have greatly affected domestic manufacturers, which are selling their vehicles well, especially passenger cars.

Total sales of domestically made vehicles increased by more than 32 percent year-on-year to over 2 million units from January to August, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

Sales of domestically made passenger cars reached 680,300 units during the period, an increase of more than 42 percent from a year earlier.

"The main reasons for the upbeat sales of domestically made vehicles are that imports have not surged as many expected earlier and most local manufacturers have been launching new models to attract consumers this year," said Jia Xinguang, chief analyst with the China National Automotive Industry Consulting and Development Corp.

Vehicle imports were widely forecast by experts to at least double this year compared to 2001.

But the government has not released as many import licenses as experts predicted.

There are around 30,000 foreign-made vehicles in the Chinese mainland's bonded areas because they do not have import licenses.

Local manufacturers, especially Sino-foreign joint ventures, have launched dozens of new products, such as the Polo from Shanghai Volkswagen, the Palio from Nanjing Fiat in East China's Jiangsu Province and the Elysee from Dongfeng Citroen.

More new products will be on sale later this year, including Tianjin Toyota's T-1, a Fiesta model from Chang'an Ford and an Opel model from Shanghai General Motors.

(China Daily September 30, 2002)