Nearly 60 percent of global automobile-plant investments in 2012 went to China, and the trend should continue for the foreseeable future, a Canadian research report said.

China - the world's largest producer and buyer of automobiles - received C$9.62 billion last year from new-capacity investments, or 59.6 percent of the global total.

The figure over the past four years was C$40 billion ($38.9 billion), or 57 percent of the world total, according to the Office of Automotive and Vehicle Research, Odette School of Business, University of Windsor.