For the first quarter of the year China imported less autos by 44.4 percent while exported more autos by 41.2 percent than the same period of last year. The auto imports and exports, including the auto parts, valued 2.275 billion USD and nearly 2.1 billion USD respectively.

Analysts with the Ministry of Commerce attributed the shrinking auto imports to three reasons: newly launched home made models with competitive pricing, growing domestic auto parts suppliers, and the stagnant domestic auto market.

The statistics from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers shows that the auto production for the first three months in 2005 has basically kept at the same level as that in the same period of last year, which rose 0.87 percent. Output of sedans, however, dropped 6.38 percent.