US auto giant General Motors, battling to bolster sales at home after emerging from bankruptcy, on Wednesday predicted its 2009 sales in China would rise by more than 40 percent year-on-year.

The prediction came as GM and its Chinese partners said August sales soared 112.7 percent year-on-year to 152,365 units — the latest in a series of single-month records stretching back to January.

"We are now looking at (an overall China) market of 11.5 to 12 million vehicles, up from 9.1 million units last year," GM China Group President and Managing Director Kevin Wale said in a statement.

"We expect GM sales for the year as a whole to rise by more than 40 percent from 2008."

China sales for the first eight months of 2009 hit 1,111,401 units, a 49.6 percent increase over the same period last year, GM said.

At the same time in the United States, GM's biggest market, August sales dropped 20 percent and year-to-date sales fell 35 percent to 1.4 million vehicles.

Demand for its Buick and Chevrolet models helped Shanghai GM, a joint venture with the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation, post an all-time monthly sales record in August of more than 63,300 units, the company said.

Buick, a struggling brand elsewhere that is popular among China's burgeoning middle class, saw sales rise 102.8 percent on year in August with more than 38,900 units sold, the company said.

Meanwhile, Chevrolet sales in China hit an all-time monthly high of more than 23,770 vehicles sold, up 99.4 percent year-on-year, GM said.

"We expect sales to remain robust through the end of the year," Wale said. "The continued introduction of new products will help GM remain ahead of the market."

GM China's fortunes are the reverse image of its US parent, which took over the main producing assets of the "old GM" and exited bankruptcy last month, underlining the Asian market's increasing significance for the auto industry.

In a sign of China's growing importance, the reconstituted, leaner GM has made Shanghai the headquarters for its international operations.

Share This Article With Planet Earth