With remarkable improvement of the auto industry in recent years, China has become an inseparable part of the world's auto market.

The total automobile sales rose by 26.7 percent, reaching 3.63 million units in the first half of this year in China, according to related statistics released by the Ministry of Commerce. In terms of auto sale, China had jumped from the seventh place in 2001 to the third in the world last year, only next to the second place Japan, by a gap of 1,000 units. From the development in the first half of the year, China¡¯s auto sales will possibly surpass Japan¡¯s by the end of this year.

Xu Zhangming, director of the Department of Information Resources Development under the State Information Centre, said that the growth rate of China's auto industry had accelerated obviously in the first half of the year and its international status had improved dramatically. The consumption of the motor vehicles accounted for more than 20 percent of the world total, higher than that of 9 percent last year.

(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)