HONG KONG: Dongfeng Motors, China's third-largest auto maker, said it will boost its output "significantly" in the future to maintain its strong position in the market.

"We will have to boost our capacity in the coming years," Executive Director Zhou Wenjie told reporters in Hong Kong yesterday, without specifying the goal or giving a timeframe.

However, reports have said there are plans to invest US$3.1 billion to increase output by 65 per cent to 1.2 million vehicles by 2008.

Dongfeng, is the third-largest auto maker on the mainland, following First Automobile Group Company and Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. It had a 12 per cent market share of the passenger-vehicle market on the mainland in the first half of the year, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

In the first eight months of this year, the company produced 329,000 vehicles, up 17 per cent from a year earlier, and sold 321,000 units, up 19 per cent from the same period.