Cars

Top Sino-foreign carmaker GM inks $900m import deal

By Xiao Han (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-01-31 15:44

JD Power expect 6 percent growth in global sales to 76.5 million units in 2011.

BEIJING - General Motors will import vehicles and components worth $900 million into China under a two-year agreement recently signed with its local joint venture Shanghai GM.

Vehicle imports are valued at $500 million and parts shipments will be worth $400 million, the company said in a statement.

The agreement inked on Jan 21 in Chicago was among trade and investment deals signed during Chinese President Hu Jintao's state visit to the United States.

"GM fully supports a mutually beneficial, open and productive trade environment," said Kevin Wale, president and managing director of the GM China Group.

"We are committed to working with both countries to promote bilateral trade," he said.

Analysts said the contract signals an effort by GM to revive its business in the profitable imported car market in China, where it already enjoys a stable leading position in locally made products.

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GM and its joint ventures sold a total of 2.35 million vehicles in the country last year - a year-on-year increase of 29 percent, enabling it to retain the sales crown for overseas carmakers for the sixth consecutive year.

It also marked the first time a foreign carmaker surpassed the 2-million-unit sales benchmark in the Chinese market.

Its flagship joint venture Shanghai GM, in which GM owns a 49 percent stake, last year delivered just over 1 million cars under its Buick, Chevrolet and Cadillac brands.

The company's other local joint venture SAIC-GM-Wuling, which mainly makes minivans, reported even brisker sales of 1.2 million.

China became the biggest auto market worldwide in 2009, a position it maintained in 2010.

Last year, the nation also outperformed the US by a small margin as the top market for GM. The company sold about 2.2 million vehicles in the US.

Globally GM moved 8.4 million vehicles last year, up 12 percent from a year earlier.