| Geely predicts more sales boom this year |
SHANGHAI, Jan. 10 -- Geely Holding Group says its vehicles sales this year could grow 45 percent in China compared to last year, fuelled by exports to overseas markets.
Geely, one of China's leading private car makers, forecast yesterday sales of 296,000 units.
Last year it sold 204,000 vehicles, an increase of 40 percent from 2005, according to Li Shufu, chairman of the Zhejiang-based car maker.
The sales spurt pushed Geely to ninth in terms of sales in China for last year. Sales revenue amounted to nine billion yuan (US$1.12 billion) during the same period and it expects to add another three billion yuan this year.
The car maker also set an export target of 33,000 units this year after a year-on-year export growth of 110 percent to 15,000 units last year.
However, the company said it expected a better performance from its overseas markets.
"We are not satisfied with the current exporting scale and it is still far from our target," said Liu Jinliang, vice president of Geely. "So we are making efforts to lay a solid foundation to prepare for a future export increase, including cooperation with foreign partners, building plants in overseas markets and developing product line-ups," Liu said without elaborating.
The company aims to sell two million cars by 2015 with two-thirds sold overseas.
The company is one of a number of Chinese car makers seemingly banking on the North American and European markets to help boost sales and compete with global auto giants.
Yesterday, Geely unveiled a special fund of 3.6 million yuan to invite designers from home and abroad to design a new logo.
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