Vehicle output in China remained on an upward trend in September from August helped by stronger sales, according to an industry organization.

The nation's vehicle output amounted to 437,100 units last month, up 15.93% from August, statistics from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers show.

Growth was up from 5.97% in August from July.

Growth over the past two months came after consecutive month-to-month declines from April to July.

"The growth mainly resulted from a rebounding market demand for vehicles," said Zhu Yiping, spokeswoman for the auto association.

Sales of automobiles made in China rose by 14.37% to 439,100 units in September from the previous month, according to statistics.

The rise in August was up from 10.5 per cent from July.

Bus output and sales stood at 101,500 units and 103,100 units in September, up 21 per cent and 16.58 per cent from the previous month respectively.

The auto association predicted at the beginning of this year that the full-year vehicle output in China would stand at 5.1 to 5.34 million units, including 2.5 to 2.62 million cars.

Last year, total vehicle output jumped by 34 per cent to 4.4 million units, including 2 million cars.

The domestic automobile market will become warmer during the fourth quarter of this year as tight government controls on car loans are expected to loosen and many Chinese families can afford to buy cars, said Xu Changming, a researcher at the State Information Centre.

"The vast majority of producers in China, who are falling short of their sales targets this year, will take all kinds of measures to boost sales," Xu said.

Further vehicle price wars will be "inevitable" during the fourth quarter, he said.

On October 1, Volkswagen's car joint venture with First Automotive Works Corp (FAW) slashed prices of Audi A6 and A4 sedans by 20,000 to 65,000 yuan (US$2,400 to US$7,850), or as much as 15%.
FAW, based in Northeast China's Jilin Province, remains the biggest Chinese automaker, selling 705,500 vehicles during the first three quarters, up 9.17 per cent from a year earlier.