(From:CMB-CETA editor)

Toyota Motor Corporation estimated 12 million automobiles to be sold in China in 2009, according to Etsuo Hattori, the Japanese automaker's chief representative for China.
 
By comparison, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) forecasted earlier that the country's auto sales would near 11 million units this year.

In the first half alone, about 6 million vehicles were sold in China, according to the CAAM. However, Toyota Motor underperformed its peers locally in the mean time, Mr. Hattori affirmed. Upon its announcement, the Japanese company sold 284,000 vehicles in China from January to June, as many as those sold in the comparable period of 2008.

In fact, China has incontestably become Toyota Motor's most important market, said Mr. Hattori, stressing that the company's new president Akio Toyoda visited China this June, his first abroad visit since taking office.

In addition, Mr. Hattori pointed out that Chinese domestic carmakers benefited munch from the local government's preferential policies for production of low-displacement cars and promotion of vehicles in second- and third-tier markets.