China may top Germany as No.3 auto maker
(Bloomberg)
Updated: 2005-11-13 10:24

Car Ownership Increases

Germany's production of trucks and buses rose 8 percent in the first 10 months of 2005 to 336,900 units while the output of cars rose 2 percent to 4.46 units in the same period.

China's 122 vehicle assemblers have not been getting equal shares of the profit from the market's growth.

The nation's 10 largest assemblers including Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. and FAW Group Co. accounted for 84 percent of sales in the first 10 months of the year, state-run Xinhua News Agency said. Industry profit fell 6 percent to a combined 72 billion yuan ($8.7 billion) in 2004.

Chinese households and companies owned 26.94 million cars last year, excluding those owned by the military, of which 14.82 million were registered under personal use, the paper said.

More people are commuting by cars, with the national daily average rising to 23.3 percent at the end of 2004 from 6 percent in 1984. The percentage of daily commuters who rely on public transport dropped to 26.5 percent from 35 percent in the same 20- year period, the research shows.