BEIJING, March 18 (Reuters) - China produced 114,200 cars in February, up 160 percent year on year, taking the total for the first two months of 2003 to 241,700, a rise of 140 percent, the State Statistical Bureau said.
The figures were not broken down by individual automaker.
Car makers raised output to meet strong consumer demand after the Chinese Lunar New Year, which ended February 7, the bureau said in a statement posted on its official Web site at www.stats.gov.cn and seen by Reuters on Tuesday.
Demand over the holiday season -- China's most important annual holiday -- was weak, it said.
China's car market, the focus of global giants like General Motors Corp and Volkswagen AG , has ballooned in recent years alongside rising personal incomes, the product of years of robust economic expansion.
The boom owes much of its growth to foreign investment. Since China allowed the first Sino-foreign car venture with Germany's Volkswagen to set up shop in Shanghai in 1985, dozens of foreign automakers have flocked to the mainland.
Annual car sales broke the one-million mark for the first time last year, surging 56 percent to hit 1.126 million. Car output hit 1.09 million, up 55 percent.
In all, China-based auto makers sold 3.248 million vehicles in 2002, up 37.1 percent from 2001. Vehicle output rose 38 percent to 3.25 million in 2002.
Vehicle sales revenue in the world's fastest-growing auto market climbed 30.8 percent to 646.5 billion yuan ($78.10 billion) last year, according to official figures. ($1=8.277 Yuan)