China's Soueast Motor Co, one of the country's backbone car exporters, recorded 501 million yuan in sales revenue in January, up 99.6 percent year-on-year, company sources said on Thursday.
It is the first time for the company to see a major sales growth in the past 13 months when the automobile market remains in the doldrums, the sources said.
Soueast Motor Co produced 6,737 vehicles and sold 4,418 in January, growing by 71.82 percent and 31.49 percent year-on-year respectively, the sources said.
It paid 135 million yuan for taxes in January, a monthly record since 1995 when the company was founded.
Soueast Motor clinched its biggest ever export deal of 8,000 minibuses with Iran last December, winning the lion's share of the Iranian government's plan to replace 15,000 taxis in 2007.
It began shipping the first batch of 800 minibuses bound for Iran on February 10, and will export another more than 2,000 vehicles to Syria, Egypt and Ukraine this year.
Soueast Motor Co was jointly founded in 1995 with a registered capital of 138 million U.S. dollars byFujianAuto Industrial Co Ltd and China Motor Corporation of Yulon Enterprise Group, the largest auto group inTaiwan.
In April last year Japan's Mitsubishi Motor Vehicle Co took a quarter share in southeast Motor.
Soueast Motor was one of the 44 backbone car exporters that were approved by theMinistry of Commerceand theNational Development and Reform Commissionlast August.
