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China to be world's largest auto producer by the end of the year

 
1 1,829 views Mar 30, 2009

China has already overtaken the U.S. and is drawing in on global leader, Japan

China has already overtaken the U.S. and is drawing in on global leader, Japan

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Despite the global economic downturn, the nation of China is still on track to become the world's largest automaker by this year. Currently, China remains in second place to Japan, but last year the Chinese managed to overtake the U.S. to claim their current second-place position, and this trend is expected to continue this year, with China holding the lead spot through at least 2013 based on current trends.

Market research firms are predicting that China will manufacture around 8.7 million vehicles this year, over a million units more than Japan is expected to produce. Most of these cars will never leave China, but a small number will be exported by growing Chinese brands such as Chery and Shanghai Autos.

One market research firm in particular, iSuppli, is heralding the news as a "major milestone in China's economic ascendancy and the United States' industrial decline", and with the current state of the U.S. economy it is easy to see why China is becoming a leading manufacturer in areas of complex mass production.

The ascendancy of China and the decline of the U.S. is also signposted by the sudden growth in the Chinese market, which has seen automotive production double since 2004 while at the same time U.S. production halved in the same period.

Additionally, while the overall global market for cars is expected to fall by over 20% this year, China will remain comparatively stable with production expected to decline just 6.5%. Japan especially will be forced to cut production by massive amounts this year following their overstocking of inventory in the wake of the economic crisis - whether or not China ever makes the leap to becoming a dominant export force like Japan still remains to be seen, but with the crown of the world's largest car producing nation soon to be theirs it seems more of a certainty now than ever.



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Comment (1)

  1. By  smart lipo Posted: 2/10/2010 5:37am PST

    China could easily end up being the world’s largest auto manufacturer since they are sitting on a mountain of capital and they are already geared for manufacturing, but, unless they are producing electric cars or promoting a hydrogen future, they are only going to increase pollution.
    I honestly don’t want to buy a Chinese made car at all. If people are in an uproar about financing Islamo-Fascism then they should be just as resistant to financing Communist PRC governance.
    GM and Chrysler need to combine so they can produce EV’s with Ford in the future otherwise they’ll get swallowed by the competition.
     
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