China vehicle boom boosts show hopes

BEIJING Strong growth in China's automotive market in the first six months of the year and an increasingly open business climate is boosting Messe Frankfurt's hopes for its upcoming Automechanika shows in the country. Mainland China's continuing boom is bucking the trend of much of the rest of Asia, which is still suffering from the economic slowdown. Vehicle sales in Beijing alone shot up 87% year-on-year between January and June 2002 taking the city's vehicle population to 1.8million. This new data comes at a crucial period in the pre-show preparations for Auto South China and Automechanika China, located in Guangdong and Beijing respectively. Expanding economic infrastructure has fuelled increasing demand for various kinds of heavy-goods vehicles. Rising living standards have led to wider car ownership, which has led domestic manufacturers to predict production figures of one million vehicles this year, a 30% increase on last year. Auto South China, which will take place on December 7-11 at the China Foreign Trade Centre in Guangzhou. Automechanika China, which will take place on March 11-14, 2003 at the China International Exhibition Centre in Beijing.