China's vehicle output and sales slumped last month compared with December, according to an industry monitoring organization.

Domestic vehicle output totaled 299,700 units in January, a decrease of 27.47 percent from the previous month, statistics from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers show. The figure was down 9.68 percent from a year ago.

Total sales of Chinese-made vehicles dropped by 33.38 percent to 304,100 units in January from a month earlier, and by 7.34 percent compared to the same period last year.

"The output and sales slumps were mainly generated by the New Year's holiday and the Spring Festival," said auto association spokeswoman Zhu Yiping.

"That does not reflect the whole year's development trend. Output and sales will recover to grow soon and we are maintaining our previous optimistic forecasts."

The association predicted last month that China's vehicle output would reach 5.1 to 5.34 million units this year, up from 4.44 million units last year.

Statistics show that the domestic passenger car output shrank by 27.79 percent to 142,300 units last month from December. The figure was up 5.88 percent on an annual basis.

Sales of domestically made passenger cars stood at 155,500 units in January, a decrease of 31.61 percent from the previous month, or up 6.79 percent from a year earlier.

The total output of passenger cars in China will reach 2.5 to 2.62 million units this year, up from 2.02 million units in 2003, according to association predictions.

The output of trucks in China fell by 20.91 percent to 76,522 units in January from December, and by 24.57 percent when compared with the same period in 2003.

Sales of domestically made trucks declined by 37.61 percent to 63,594 units last month from December.

The association forecast the total truck output will increase to 1.37 million units this year from 1.21 million last year.

Bus output in China hit 80,868 units in January, a decrease of 32.21 percent from the previous month, statistics show. The figure tumbled by 15.72 percent compared to a year ago.

Sales of buses made in China dropped by 33.17 percent to 84,991 units in January from December.

The association predicted that the total bus output will reach up to 1.35 million units this year, up from 1.21 million in 2003.

Zhu said the 15 key state-owned automakers in China reported more than 470 billion yuan (US$56.7 billion) in sales revenue last year, an increase of 48.67 percent from 2002. These manufacturers' profits jumped by 57.6 percent year-on-year to 40.93 billion yuan (US$4.9 billion) last year.

This beats world rating agency Standard & Poor's recent report that average operating profit margins of automakers in China stood at 30 to 35 percent, compared with 5 percent in developed nations.

(China Daily February 17, 2004)