China car sales at record high

China's auto sales logged a new monthly record in January in a sign of robust demand in the world's biggest car market, new data showed today.
Some 2.16 million cars were bought in China last month, a year-on-year rise of 5.99 per cent, while output increased 4.44 per cent to 2.05 million units, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) said in a report.
Passenger vehicle sales rose 7.03 per cent year-on-year to 1.85 million units, driven mainly by demand for foreign cars as the market share of local brands dropped significantly, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Last month, sales of Chinese-brand passenger cars accounted for merely 38.41 per cent of the total volume, down 4.35 percentage points from the share seen a month earlier, according to the CAAM.

Among foreign brands, Japanese cars suffered a slip in the Chinese market, taking up only 13.61 per cent of the sales volume, whereas brands from Germany, the United States, South Korea and France all saw growth.
On the back of rapid urbanisation and rising incomes, China has cemented its top position as the world's largest car market in recent years.
In 2013, vehicle sales in China rose 13.87 per cent from a year earlier to 21.98 million units.