Brilliance China Automotive Holdings Ltd said it earned a profit
last year as new models helped boost sales.
The Chinese partner of BMW AG sold 300,369 cars last year,
beating an earlier forecast of 280,000 units, according to its
statement yesterday.
With a 30-percent growth in sales from a year earlier,
Shenyang-based Brilliance also recorded sales revenue of 43 billion
yuan (US$5.89 billion), an increase of 32 percent year-on-year.
Brilliance, the former light-vehicle specialist making Haise
light buses and Jinbei light trucks, began to win more customers
after moving into the booming passenger car market with its own
nameplate in the world's second-largest auto market.
It launched several new self-branded models last year to boost
sales. This included the Zhonghua Junjie sedan, using China's first
self-developed 1.8T engine, and the Zhonghua Coupe sports
sedan.
Sales of its Zhonghua-branded cars soared 82 percent to 115,000
units last year while exports also rose 79 percent to 15,500 units
during the same period.
Brilliance is also adding capacity and expanding overseas to
fulfill aggressive targets of doubling sales to 600,000 units by
2010 with revenue topping 100 billion yuan.
In November, the car maker signed a contract to set up its
fourth overseas factory in Russia, paving the way for selling more
than 100,000 cars in the east European market within five
years.
The move follows its deals to export 158,000 Zhonghua Zunchi
sedans to Germany and 80,000 Haise light-commercial vehicles to
Russia in 2006.
One of Brilliance's car, with pricing planned at US$20,000, is
also being certified in the United States before sales launch
sometime this year.
Brilliance faced questions about car quality after its Zunchi
sedan earned a low-rating from a crash test in Germany.
It improved its technology and received a three-star rating in a
follow up test one month later.
(Shanghai Daily January 2, 2008)
