Geely Holding Group, China's top privately owned carmaker, aims to nearly triple its overseas sales this year from 2006, despite obstacles from foreign countries and the Chinese government's stricter rules on car exports.

 

The parent of Hong Kong-listed Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd yesterday said it expects to export 33,000 cars in 2007, up from 12,000 last year. The 2006 figure was up from 7,000 units in 2005.

 

The independent carmaker, based in coastal Zhejiang Province, is one of China's leading car exporters as well as Chery Automobile Co in Anhui Province.

 

However, Geely's planned car production in Malaysia is still suspended due to a row over sales ratios in the Southeast Asian nation, the firm's spokesman Wang Ziliang said yesterday.

 

According to a deal clinched in 2005, Geely planned to assemble its cars in Malaysia last year with an initial capacity of 30,000 units annually. But it was ordered to sell 80 percent of the made-in-Malaysia cars out of the country, which Geely could not accept.

 

"I'm afraid that it will take us some time to solve the issue," Wang told China Daily.

 

He said Geely is preparing new models which will meet standards in the United States in an effort to foray into the world's biggest car market in 2008.

 

The company's main overseas markets are currently in the Middle East, Southeast Asia and East Europe.

 

Asked whether China's tightened rules on car exports published last week will affect Geely's overseas sales, Wang said: "It will not have a negative impact on us."

 

The rules, which will come into effect on March 1, will introduce a licensing system to prevent domestic carmakers from cut-throat battles abroad and to weed out firms that are too small to compete internationally, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

 

In August, Geely was announced as one of China's 160 vehicle and spare parts exporting enterprises by the ministry.

 

Xu Changming, an auto industry analyst with the State Information Center, said: "Only small firms which sell a tiny number of cars abroad will be deprived of exporting rights under the new rules.

 

"China's vehicle exports will continue to grow rapidly."

 

There are more than 1,000 companies in China exporting vehicles, of which 600 sold less than 10 units each overseas last year, Xu said.

 

China's overall vehicle exports doubled to 340,000 units last year from 2005 with the number of passenger cars exported tripling to 90,000, according to data from the ministry.

 

Xu predicted the nation's 2007 vehicle exports will reach 500,000 units.

 

An executive from Chery, China's top car exporter, said in November that the firm aims to sell 80,000 to 100,000 vehicles abroad this year. It exported 50,000 units in 2005.

 

Geely said yesterday that it planned to lift its overall sales by half to 296,000 cars this year from last year. Its 2006 sales ranked No 10 among Chinese automakers.

 

It expects its share in China's car market to climb to more than 5 percent this year from 4.6 percent last year, the firm added.

 

Sales of all made-in-China vehicles are estimated to have exceeded 7 million units last year, enabling the nation to outpace Japan and become the world's second-biggest vehicle market.

 

(China Daily January 5, 2007)