GM boosts China forecast, expecting 40% growth

General Motors Co. said Wednesday its sales growth in China, its fastest growing market, should exceed 40 percent this year after August sales more than doubled from a year earlier.

The jump in sales, spurred by new models and favorable vehicle-purchase policies from Beijing, continued a series of single-month records that began in January. It helped to push the US auto maker's unit sales to 1.11 million for the first eight months of this year, outpacing its total for 2008.

"We expect GM sales for the year as a whole to rise by more than 40 percent from 2008," said GM China Group President and Managing Director Kevin Wale in a statement.

Ford Motor Co. also reported Wednesday that sales from its Chinese passenger-vehicle joint venture more than doubled in August from a year earlier to 21,127 units.

August's sales figure represents the seventh month of year-on-year growth for Ford in China, it said in a statement. It didn't provide the year-earlier figure. Changan Ford is Ford's joint venture with Chongqing Changan Automobile Co.

Sales of the Ford Focus model rose 58 percent to 12,269 units in August, the highest monthly sales tally for the midsize car since January 2008, the statement said.

The new GM forecast for this year was higher than the more than 20 percent growth outlook GM gave in July. Last year, GM's sales in China lagged behind the industry's growth, rising 6.1 percent to 1.09 million units. Total vehicle sales in China last year rose 6.7 percent from a year earlier to 9.38 million vehicles.

The newly restructured US auto maker said sales were up 113 percent in August to a record 152,365 units, continuing a series of single-month records that began in January.

GM's sales in China during the January-August period rose 50 percent from a year earlier to 1.11 million units, it said in a statement. It didn't provide the year-earlier figures.

(WSJ)