Chinese brands seen making it globally in 10 years

Four leading state-owned carmakers said yesterday at least one or two Chinese brands of cars would make it to the international stage in the next decade.

However, a lack of scale and a shortage of local talent remained major hurdles for their development.

Speaking at a conference on the eve of the Shanghai Auto Fair, the heads of Changan Automobile, Beijing Automotive, Dongfeng Motor and Guangzhou Automobile agreed increasing exports and their own brands' production capacity were two of their main tasks in the next seven years.

While exports still make up just a fraction of total sales for Chinese carmakers, Beijing Auto chairman Xu Heyi said he expected car exports from the mainland to exceed imports this year.

"The growth in sales of domestic brands is still below the average sales growth of the industry, and it probably will remain this way too this year. But starting from next year, it should catch up or even exceed that of the overall industry," Xu said.

China Automobile Manufacturers Association figures show 6.48 million Chinese-brand cars were sold last year - a year-on-year rise of 6.1 per cent, which was below the 7.17 per cent for the overall passenger car market.