China has sharply reduced its forecast for automobile output for the current year to 2.39 million units
from 2.82 million units due to sluggish domestic car sales and mounting inventories, the state media reported on Thursday.
Forecasts for the car output growth rate this year have been lowered to 18 per cent from 40 per cent, an official
from the National Bureau of Statistics, Jiang Yuan said in Beijing.
China's car output had surged by 83 per cent to 2.02 million units in 2003.
"The reduction on car output forecast this year is based on adverse car market conditions," he was quoted as
saying by 'China Daily'.
Car output and sales in China stood at 171,900 units and 170,300 units in the first 8 months of the year, up
only 0.02 per cent and 0.23 per cent from a year earlier respectively.
Accumulated car output in China grew by 26.2 per cent year-on-year to 1.62 million units during the period
with sales reaching 1.51 million units, up 23.7 per cent.
Output and sales growth rates were down from 83 per cent and 75 per cent respectively last year, the report
said.
The growth plunge mainly resulted from government controls on car loans, soaring oil prices and consumers'
strong anticipation of further price cuts, it said.
"Most car makers in China cannot fulfil sales targets set at the beginning of this year," Jiang addes.
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