China's Dongfeng plans aggressive auto export

BEIJING - Chinese carmaker Dongfeng Motor expects its auto export to grow about five times to reach 300,000 units in 2016, the company announced.

By 2016, one in every ten Dongfeng vehicles sold will be shipped overseas, Zhou Qiang, a senior official of the state-owned carmaker, told reporters on Friday.

Dongfeng exported 63,800 vehicles in 2011, less than 3 percent of its whole-year sale of 2.17 million units. Export earning was about $1.06 billion.

It has set up a new department for international marketing and will diversify its products to produce new energy-powered cars to meet the ambitious goal, Zhou said.

Dongfeng is China's second largest automaker in terms of sales. The company's profit dropped 4.6 percent to 10.48 billion yuan ($1.7 billion) last year, largely due to the impact of Japan's earthquake, new tax expenditure at joint ventures, and prices declines amid fierce market competition, it said earlier this year.