China’s auto sales in April continued to grow at a double-digit as new launches fueled demand. Deliveries of passenger cars and commercial vehicles increased 13.4% from a year earlier to 1.84 million units in April as sales almost kept the same pace of growth registered in the January-March period, the China Association of Automotive Manufacturers (CAAM) reported. The deliveries included 1.44 million sedans, sport-utility vehicles (SUVs) and multipurpose vehicles (MPVs) in April, up 13% year-on-year. The China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) said the country’s passenger car sales grew 15% in April due to several new rollouts that coincided with the Auto Shanghai 2013 show taking place. “Without intervention from the government, sales of passenger cars (in China) may add 2 million units this year,” Rao Da, Secretary General of the CPCA said, implying that the segment will return to double-digit growth. The sales of domestic passenger car brands in the past four months increased 16.3% from the same period a year earlier, 0.1 percentage point higher than the segment’s average rate, giving them a 42.4% market share. German, U.S., South Korean and French automakers all saw sales surge above 20% while Japanese carmakers suffered a 12.9% drop, the Shanghai Daily reports. Toyota sales fell 6.5% to 76,400 units – its ninth drop in 10 months – while Nissan deliveries fell 8.5%. Honda’s eased 2.4% year-on-year. Mazda suffered the most, with sales falling 15%. Nissan’s retail sales – sales to end-users rather than dealers – rose 18.8%, giving it some cause for cheer. Andrew Thomson, Partner at KPMG China, predicted an annual 10% rise in passenger vehicle sales in 2013, with SUV sales likely to grow at “around double that rate and the luxury segment also growing ahead of the overall market”. Vehicle sales by General Motors increased 15.3% on an annual basis to an April record of 261,870 units. Its strong performance took the company’s sales for the first four months of 2013 to a record 1,078,243 vehicles, an increase of 10.9% on an annual basis, the first time it had surpassed 1 million units in the first four months of the year. Ford Motor Co also reported a robust 37% growth in April sales, with deliveries of 75,331 vehicles. Its total sales of 261,927 in the first four months represented a 49% sales surge from a year earlier.

South Korea’s Hyundai Motor is considering building a fourth car plant in China, Vice Chairman Hsueh Yung-hsing said. The comment might indicate a change in the group’s attitude toward capacity expansion, but it is not clear whether Group Chairman Chung Mong-koo will approve the move. “We expect our capacity in China to become constrained by 2015 and 2016 and are considering a plant with a capacity of 300,000,” Hsueh Yung-hsing told reporters, adding western China is a candidate location for the new plant. Hsueh, who is in charge of the China operations for Hyundai and its affiliate Kia Motors, said a new plant is needed to maintain both companies’ Chinese market share of around 10% in the 2015-2016 period when the world’s biggest auto market is expected to grow to 20 million vehicles a year. He also said the construction of a third China auto plant by Kia Motors would be brought forward by two months and would be completed in February next year, which will lead to a total manufacturing capacity of 1.8 million vehicles in China for Hyundai and Kia. Managers of the two companies still assume the effective ban Chung placed on a new factory globally will remain intact at least for a while.

South Korean car parts maker Mando China’s initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong may help it expand market share. Hyundai and Kia were the source of about half of Mando China’s revenue last year; with fast-growing brands like General Motors and Geely providing the rest. Mando China – a spin-off from Mando Korea, which has been part of the Hyundai Group since 1980 – said in a 361-page document that it was gaining new orders from Volvo, BYD, Guangzhou Automotive Corp and FAW-Volkswagen. “If you want to know whether a stock is worth investing in, the company’s ability to source new clients is one crucial factor to consider,” said John Lu, Car Industry Analyst at Guosen Securities. Sources said the company aimed to raise up to USD350 million to fund two new production plants in Sichuan and Guangdong. Mando’s shares will start listing on May 31. Mando China’s financial performance this year has been called into question, however. A 50% income tax waiver for two of its subsidiaries, Mando Harbin and Mando Tianjin, was not renewed after the concession expired last year. The group’s other major subsidiary, Mando Beijing Chassis, which still enjoys a 15% waiver on income tax, will lose the tax break when the waiver expires in October next year. The company’s net profit rose 28% year-on-year to CNY155 million in the first quarter of this year. Its net profit last year edged down 0.3% to CNY498 million, while the gross profit margin fell 1.6 percentage points last year to 21%, amid vigorous competition, the South China Morning Post reports. Mando China plans to boost production of conventional brake products – anti-lock brakes and electronic stability control systems – to 22.4 million units next year from 19.4 million this year. Production of suspension products, including shock absorbers, suspension struts and damper spring modules, will increase to 19.7 million units from 17.9 million units.

Volkswagen plans to invest CNY12 billion to build its first plant in Central China through its joint venture with SAIC Motor. it will have an annual output of 300,000 units. Production at the new plant, to be located in Changsha, capital of Hunan province, will begin in early 2016. The plant will produce the Skoda Octavia and two other medium-sized sedan models. VW’s newly built plants in Urumqi (Xinjiang), Foshan (Guangdong) and Ningbo (Zhejiang) will start production this year. The company will also build parts plants in Changchun in Jilin province and Foshan in 2013. Over the next three years, the German automaker also plans to set up a new vehicle factory in southwestern China. Volkswagen plans to raise output capacity in China from the current 2.6 million to 4 million by 2018, with an average annual growth of 35%. GM also plans to add capacity. “General Motors’ manufacturing facilities in China are running at near maximum capacity. We need to add capacity to keep up with the rising demand for its products,” said Bob Socia, President of General Motors China.

Geely Automobile’s sales in the first four months of this year are already well ahead of its target growth rate, and it predicted a strong second half as long as the government did not further limit new car sales in second and third-tier cities. The cap, aimed at easing traffic jams and air pollution in major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Guiyang, has hurt car sales. Geely’s sales growth was 21%, taking it to 187,377 units in the four months to April 30, against a target rate of 16% for the whole year. In the second half, the group is due to launch four to five new models, including a brand new electric vehicle, the EC7. Geely is also keen to speed up overseas expansion. The company’s car exports could jump another 30% to 50% this year, after 164% growth last year. Geely has set up production plants with local partners in Russia, Ukraine, Indonesia and Egypt in the past two years. It is due to increase production in Uruguay, Ethiopia and Brazil, as cars exported from these countries would enjoy duty exemptions to key markets in Latin America and Eastern Europe. Geely exported more than 100,000 vehicles last year, more than any of its Chinese rivals. Great Wall was a close second at 95,489 vehicles. Production capacity of SUVs at Geely’s plant in Chengdu will be boosted to 100,000 cars this year, from the current level of 60,000 cars. The group’s net profit jumped 32% last year to CNY2.04 billion.