China’s auto sales will grow 15% in 2008, expert predicts

China’s automobile industry will probably grow 15 percent in 2008, a projected growth pace much slower than last year, according to a senior research fellow at State Information Center, a government-run think-tank affiliated to China’s central government.
 
Liu Ming, the director of market research department and chief research fellow at State Information Center said, under the influence of tightened macro-economic policies by Central government, China’s automobile industry will maintain a fast growing pace, but it will be slower than 2007; it will grow at about 15 percent this year.
 
In 2007, China sold 8.5 million vehicles, up 21 percent from one year earlier. This is the fourth consecutive year that China’s auto sales growth is higher than 20 percent.
 
Another automobile industry expert, Yao Jie, deputy secretariat of China Automobile Industrial Association, agreed that China’s automobile industry will maintain a steady growth in 2008 due to favorable macro-economic conditions. “Automobile consumption will continue to play a leading role in China’s domestic consumption.”
 
Yao Liu concluded that China’s passenger vehicle sales will continue to grow 20 percent in 2008. “We believe that China’s passenger vehicle industry has entered a fast-growing track, and it is very likely to continue a similar growth rate in the next couple of years.”
 
However, China’s commercial vehicle industry will grow at a slower pace due to macro-economic policies, Yao said. “It’s hard to believe that commercial vehicles will maintain an 18 percent growth in 2008, if you take into consideration of several factors, like oil prices.”

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