2010-08-02 10:53

The first purely electric delivery car made by Dongfeng on display at a recent auto show. [Photo/China Daily]

Partner with four foreign carmakers now ranks No 2 overall

Beijing - Dongfeng Motor Corp, one of China's top four auto groups, registered a 63 percent surge in revenue in the first half of the year to 175 billion yuan on sales of 1.28 million vehicles.

It reached 58 percent of its full-year sales target of 2.22 million units in the six months to June, generating 60 percent of its targeted 290 billion yuan in total revenues for 2010, said the company.

According to the statistics from Dongfeng, its first-half tally ranked No 2 in the entire industry, with its overall market share rising nearly 1 percentage point from a year earlier to 14.2 percent.

The automaker's sales growth was 11 percentage points higher than the industry average and was the top among the leading six domestic auto groups.

The other five big Chinese carmakers are Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp (SAIC), First Auto Works (FAW), Chang'an Automobile Group, Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Corp (BAIC) and Guangzhou Automobile Group Co (GAC).

Dongfeng is the Chinese partner of Japan's Nissan Motor, Honda Motor, Korea's Kia Motors as well as France's PSA Peugeot-Citroen.

77% surge by Kia

All its joint car ventures in China registered sales growth of above 40 percent in the first six months this year, among which the Dongfeng Yueda Kia reported sales surge of 77 percent.

According to the company, robust sales growth is in part due to a strong new product offensive.

Between January and May, the company and its joint ventures launched several new models, including the Dongfeng Fengshen H30, Dongfeng Peugeot 408, Dongfeng Citroen C5, Dongfeng Yueda Kia Soul, the NV200 as well as the new Livina made by Dongfeng Nissan.

In addition, Dongfeng has several star products that greatly supported the strong performance, such as the Teana, Sylphy from Dongfeng Nissan and the CR-V by Dongfeng Honda - all had monthly sales of over 10,000 units.

Aiming at a sustainable future, Dongfeng implemented several big construction projects in the first half, including an 80,000-unit expansion in annual capacity at its heavy-duty commercial vehicle subsidiary. The company also plans to increase capacity of its minivan production facilities.

For the first time Dongfeng has joined the Fortune Global 500 list. When the 2010 list was released last month, it ranked 182nd, ahead of three other Chinese automakers - SAIC Group, FAW Group and China South Industries Group Corp, the parent of Chang'an.