Chinese auto makers may find it more difficult to achieve their sales target this year after the rise in vehicle exports reversed sharply as the ongoing financial turmoil dented overseas orders, said an industry body yesterday.

Exports of completed vehicles, which soared rapidly over the past few years, jumped 34.71 percent to 557,500 units in the first nine months of this year, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said in a statement yesterday, citing statistics from China Customs. But the growth is 29.3 percentage points lower than that of the same period last year. CAAM said overseas deliveries for August and September declined year-on-year.

Although the value of exports in the first three quarters accelerated 58.39 percent from a year earlier to US$7.6 billion, the growth was actually halved from the same period last year.