US carmaker Ford Motor Co yesterday said its auto financing arm, Ford Credit Co, more than quadrupled the number of retail contracts in the first seven months of this year in China, the world's second-biggest vehicle market.

Ford Automotive Finance (China) Ltd, the Chinese unit of Ford Credit Co, signed 5,200 retail loan contracts in the period, rocketing 325 percent from a year ago, the Detroit-based group said.

In July alone, Ford Automotive Finance China provided more than 1,000 retail loans, a record monthly high since it kicked off operations two years ago.

The number will exceed 10,000 for the full year, it said, without giving a comparison with 2006.

Ford, which lags behind arch-rivals General Motors, Volkswagen and Toyota in China sales, said the auto financing business is facilitating its drive to become "a top-tier player" in the fast-growing car market.

Passenger car sales of Ford's wholly owned brands, including Ford, Lincoln, Volvo, Jaguar and Land Rover, surged 29 percent year-on-year to 94,064 units from January to July, it said.

Sales of all China-made vehicles grew 24.7 percent to 5.01 million units in this period, according to data from China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

Many other foreign carmakers have forayed into the burgeoning auto financing business in China, such as General Motors, Volkswagen, Toyota, DaimlerChrysler, PSA Peugeot Citroen and Nissan.

Italy's Fiat said in June that it would start to offer loans to car buyers in China in the first half of next year.

However, auto financing business remains small in China compared with that in the developed car markets because of the lack of a sound credit system in the country and also because many local customers are still not used to the concept of paying for cars in installments.

Currently, around 10 percent of vehicles sold in China are financed, compared with over 80 percent in the US and Western Europe, according to industry data.

Ford Automotive Finance China said it is providing loans to buyers through 115 dealerships in 58 Chinese cities, three-fifths of its total dealerships across the nation.

Ford now runs a joint venture with China's Chang'an Motor Corp in the western municipality of Chongqing, producing the mid-range Mondeo, the compact Focus, Mazda3 and Volvo S40. Mazda is one-third owned by Ford.

(Xinhua News Agency August 15, 2007)