Last year, China’s domestic car production totaled 13.79 million units, while Japan’s similar figure saw a 31.5 percent year-to-year decrease, only reaching 7.93 million units. According to the Japan Association of Automobile Manufacturers (JAAM), the decline was caused by the recession, a decrease in home consumption and falling exports. The U.S.’ financial reports aren’t any better, as the country had an output of 5.7 million cars in 2009.
By getting the gold ahead of the U.S. and Japan, China has become the top car producing nation for the first time in the past 20 years, as the newspaper writes.
According to the data provided by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, 4.57 million vehicles were produced by self-owned brand companies. This can be translated to 44 percent of China’s 2009 sales volume. However, the country’s exports saw a 46 percent decrease to 332,400 units last year.
In late 2009 the world found out that China had become its biggest automotive market, surpassing the U.S. for the first time in history. It looks like the Chinese are determined to make the most out of this opportunity. And the global consequences of this shift have just started to show: for example, yesterday we reported that BMW is opening an R&D center in China which will allow the manufacturer to adapt its products to the local market’s requirements and will also serve global interests of the company.
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