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GM/SAIC/Wuling plan Jakarta plant

General Motors' joint venture in China with SAIC Motor and Wuling Motor will build a plant in Jakarta next year for the Indonesian and other Southeast Asian markets.

The plant will produce Wuling-brand vehicles. The joint venture's sales grew by 12.8 percent to 1.79 million units last year, with micro vans accounting for most.

Inventory index still above alert level

The vehicle inventory alert index remained higher than alert level in January, according to the China Automobile Dealers Association.

Statistics show the index stood at 56.3 percent, 0.8 percent higher than in December. A higher index implies weaker demand, while an index of lower than 50 percent indicates a reasonable inventory.

The data was from a survey of more than 1,000 4S stores across the country.

BYD establishes auto financing

Chinese automaker BYD has established an auto finance company with Bank of Xi'an in Xi'an, the capital of Shaanxi province.

The joint venture has registered capital of 500 million yuan ($80 million), with 400 million yuan from BYD. It will offer financial services including loans to auto dealers.

BYD entered the field of auto financing five years ago. Auto finance is gaining in popularity in China and the market value is expected to grow to 525 billion yuan by 2025, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

Toyota agrees to dealer payout

Toyota Motor Corp has agreed to pay 1.24 billion yuan ($200 million) to FAW-Toyota distributors.

The payments will be made in three installments, according to Song Tao, a deputy secretary general of the CAAM.

The payout represents about half of the 2.2 billion yuan in subsidies that the dealer's group sought from the automaker in December to help meet costs resulting from excess inventory.

Dongfeng Renault eases sales targets

Dongfeng Renault Automobile Co will give its dealers more rebates as demand in the world's biggest auto market slows.

The carmaker will also moderate its sales targets for this year so "the majority of dealers could keep up," it said, without providing details.

The assistance for Dongfeng's dealers follows agreements reached by Volkswagen AG and BMW AG with their distributors in China.

(China Daily 02/09/2015 page18)