| Chongqing
Changan Automobile Co forecast exports will jump fivefold to 100,000 vehicles
in 2010 . "We
are fully confident that we can export a large number of vehicles to the overseas
market," General Manager Zhang Baolin said during an economic conference
in Suzhou on Saturday. Changan
Auto is targeting overseas expansion after new models spurred a 44 percent increase
in third-quarter sales, helping the company to rebound to a profit from a net
loss a year earlier. The
Chongqing-based company exported more than 20,000 vehicles, including mostly compact
cars and buses, in the first nine months of this year, compared with 15,000 for
the whole of 2005, Zhang said. Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe will still account
for most of the company's exports in 2010, he said. Shares
in Changan Auto have risen 45 percent on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange this year,
compared with a 61 percent increase in the benchmark Shenzhen Composite Index.
The stock rose one percent to 5.27 yuan on Friday. Zhang
forecast that Changan Auto will capture as much as 10 percent of China's auto
exports, which he forecast will exceed one million vehicles in 2010. The company's
eventual target is to sell vehicles in the US, the world's biggest auto market.
| 
