Chinese auto industry to reform during 12th Five-Year Plan

Chinese auto industry will experience dramatic changes in structure as domestic automakers plan to develop world-famous auto brands and enhance competitiveness of domestic auto industry during the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015), the Securities Daily reported Wednesday.

Ma Chunxia, analyst of Zheshang Securities said that merging and restructuring is a must for auto industry's development as the competition in the global auto market gets extra fierce.

According to statistics, there are four automakers whose production and sales volume surpassed 2 million units in 2010, among which is Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation, 3.55 million vehicles last year, followed by Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd., FAW Group Corporation and Changan Motor.

The four automakers sold 11.22 million vehicles altogether last year, which accounts for 62.1 percent of the total sales volume. The rest, however, didn't touch the one million mark.

According to the Outline of 12th Five-Year Plan raised by the government this year, the auto industry will accelerate merging and restructuring this year.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China said the country will also advocate developing new-energy vehicles in the next five years.