GROWTH in China’s auto sales picked up in August as automakers offered more price cuts to boost demand, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said yesterday.

Vehicle deliveries grew to 1.38 million units last month, an increase of 4.1 percent from the same period of last year, the CAAM said.

The growth accelerated from the 2.2 percent increase in July and June’s 1.4 percent.

Passenger car sales gained 7.3 percent year on year to 1.09 million units while commercial vehicle sales fell 6.4 percent to 285,900 units.

“Car makers’ paced-up new product launches and increase in promotions have boosted demand, therefore we expect the auto market to be brisk in the next few months and the mild growth is likely to continue,” the CAAM said.

Growth in China’s auto sales slowed down in the first seven months of this year after last year’s 30 percent surge mainly because of the expiration of government incentives on smaller-engine models and subsidies for vehicle upgrades.

The CAAM earlier revised 2011 sales growth down to 5 percent from earlier estimate of 10-15 percent.

In August, the market share of Chinese branded autos continued to sink for a third consecutive month.

Passenger car deliveries of Chinese automakers, including SAIC Motor Corp and Chery Automobile, totaled 407,400 units in August, down 2.9 percent year on year. Chinese brands account for 37.2 percent of the total, which is also 3.96 percentage points lower from a year earlier.

“Vehicle quality of Chinese branded models has been quite good, and the only weakness is the brand awareness,” said Dong Yang, secretary-general of the semi-official CAAM. “China’s self-brand carmakers need support from domestic consumers in general and government procurement in particular.”

In the first eight months of this year, carmakers sold 3.3 percent more vehicles, totaling 11.9 million units, the CAAM’s figures showed.

Source:cnbusinessnews