Car sales up 6.9%

    GROWTH in China’s vehicle market, the world’s biggest, slowed to 6.9 percent in 2014 from the previous year’s 13.9 percent rise, an industry association said yesterday.

    China’s vehicle sales totaled 23.5 million units last year, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) told a press conference in Beijing.

    In the month of December, vehicle sales grew 12.9 percent from a year earlier. That compares with monthly growth of 2.3 percent in November and 2.8 percent in October.

    VW China sales up

    VOLKSWAGEN Group sales in China rose 12.4 percent in 2014 to 3.67 million cars, outpacing market growth and its own expectations for its largest single market, Europe’s biggest carmaker said Sunday.

    In November, Volkswagen Group had said it was expected to deliver 3.6 million vehicles in China, a slowdown from last year’s 16 percent growth due to a shortage in production capacity. While Volkswagen’s luxury brands Porsche and Audi saw sales spike 25.4 percent and 17.7 percent respectively, deliveries of Volkswagen branded cars rose 10 percent.

    TV market slows

    THE shipment of flat screen television sets in China declined in 2014 and weakness in the market will continue into 2015, International Data Corporation (IDC) predicted in a report last week.

    The total shipment of flat screen television in 2014 was estimated at 43.7 million sets, down 3.3 percent year on year, according to the global market intelligence company. The shipment in 2015 will remain largely the same level as in 2014, and there will be a “soft landing” in the flat screen television market following years of rapid expansion, said the report.

    Alibaba-Incheon JV

    ALIBABA Group Holding Ltd. is in talks with the South Korean city of Incheon for a 1 trillion won (US$923 million) joint investment on a new business complex, the Dong-A Ilbo daily reported yesterday.

    The paper, without citing direct sources, said the complex would include a major shopping mall as well as a hotel and a logistics center. Alibaba and Incheon would contribute equal funding for the complex, according to the report. Alibaba could not be immediately reached for comment, while an Incheon city spokeswoman said she was checking on the veracity of the report.