Economy

GM, Ford report record May sales in China

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-06-03 15:31

BEIJING?- General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. reported double-digit growth in China sales in May and new monthly records.

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GM said Thursday sales by the company and its local partners totaled 196,400 vehicles and those by its main Chinese joint venture, Shanghai GM, rose 48.7 percent from a year earlier to 83,302.

Ford said its China sales rose 17.8 percent over a year earlier to 23,742 vehicles. The company said it was the 16th straight monthly increase.

Global automakers are looking to China, which last year overtook the United States as the biggest auto market by vehicles sold, to drive demand amid weak sales elsewhere.

GM said total sales for the first five months of the year rose 53.9 percent over a year earlier to 1,032,665 vehicles.

"We are well on our way toward record annual sales," Kevin Wale, president of the GM China Group, said in a statement.