Manufacturing

China's annual production and sales of new autos will both surpass 15 million vehicles this year, Dong Yang, secretary-general of the China Association of Automobile Manufactures, said Wednesday.

Auto sales in China continued to rise in July, though at a slower pace than in previous months. The growth rate slowed from 124 percent in January to 40 percent in April, to 17.18 percent in July.

Rapid growth in auto sales during the first several months of 2010 was due to last year's low comparison base and it was not representative of the true picture in the industry, Dong said at a press conference.

Multifaceted carmaker has four joint ventures

Dongfeng Motor Corp, China's third-largest automaker, sold nearly 1.1 million vehicles in the first five months this year, a 64 percent increase over the same period last year.

In May alone, the company reported sales of 207,764 vehicles, up 37 percent from a year previous.

The company said it aims to deliver 220,000 vehicles by the end of this year, 17 percent more than last year.

Last week the company began construction on plant that will make engines for its own-brand passenger vehicles when production begins in the last half of 2011.

Two Dongfeng models launched last year - the Fengshen S30 sedan and H30 hatchback - registered sales of 33,000 cars by the end of May. Both are currently equipped with engines made at the joint venture between Dongfeng and its French partner PSA Peugeot Citroen.

Airbus's assembly plant in north China's Tianjin Municipality plans to roll out 48 A320 aircraft in 2012, nearly doubling its current production capacity, said senior executives of the joint venture Wednesday.

"The assembly line in Tianjin is well on track, and the company is gearing up production and cutting costs to increase efficiency," said Zhao Haishan, chairman of the Tianjin-based Airbus Final Assembly Line China (FALC).

Zhao made the remarks on the occasion of the company's first anniversary of the delivery of the first FALC-assembled A320 plane.

Zhao said the latest data showed the plane, bought by Dragon Aviation Leasing and leased to Sichuan Airlines, had demonstrated excellent performance with a record of 100 percent punctuality and dispatch reliability rate.

As Airbus's first final assembly line outside Europe, FALC delivered its first A320 aircraft on June 23, 2009. Since then, it has delivered 22 Airbus A320 series aircraft to seven Chinese carriers.

According to Chery Auto, There are at least 30 models will be show on 2010 Beijing Auto Show, 4 New Energy models - M11, S18, S18B, B21 - are the most important part of Chery Auto's plan for coming years.