Motor vehicle output in China exceeded 4 million units between January and November, an industry organization says.

Passenger cars made up almost half of that, with more than 1.8 million units produced.

Showing an increase of 35.04 percent from a year ago, total output hit 4,005,300 units during the first 11 months of the year, statistics from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers show.

Passenger cars continued to be the biggest growth engine, with output surging by 83.74 percent year-on-year to 1,801,100 units.

"Total vehicle output this year will be more than 4.35 million units," Zhu Yiping, a spokesperson of the auto association, told China Daily.

Total vehicle output in China last year was 3.25 million units, including some 1.10 million passenger cars.

Manufacturers produced 1,128,600 trucks during the first 11 months of this year, up 8.43 percent from a year earlier, statistics indicated.

Bus output stood at 1,075,700 units, an increase of 13.83 percent.

In November alone, total vehicle output increased by 33.54 percent from last year to 411,600 units.

Production in November was also 12.78 percent higher than in October of this year.

Passenger car output in November reached a record high of 195,000 units, up 70.80 percent from a year ago, and up 17.15 percent from October this year.

Sales of new vehicles made in China totalled 3,917,500 units during the first 11 months of this year, an increase of 31.25 percent from the corresponding period of last year, the statistics showed.

Domestically-made passenger car sales jumped by 69.95 percent year-on-year to 1,731,700 units during the period.

Sales of trucks made in China increased by 8.44 percent to 1,104,900 units.

Sales of domestically-made buses stood at 1,080,900 units during the period, an increase of 14.14 percent from 2002.

Total vehicle sales in November rose by 35.78 percent year-on-year to 405,800 units.

Sales at each of the five major automakers in China - First Automotive Works Corp (FAW), Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp, Dongfeng Motor Corp, Chang'an Motor and Beijing Automotive Holdings - surpassed 300,000 units from January to November, according to statistics.

(China Daily December 15, 2003)