SHANGHAI, Aug 19 (Reuters) - China's biggest auto maker First Automotive Works (FAW) has raised this year's sales target to 500,000 vehicles from 450,000 due to a stellar performance in the first six months, a company spokesman said on Monday.
The firm, which has a sedan joint venture with Germany's Volkswagen AG and recently merged with China's fourth largest automaker Tianjin Automotive Industry Corp, sold 400,000 vehicles last year.
"As for a profit target, we haven't made an adjustment yet. But judging from the 500,000 sales target, the original profit aim of more than 2.5 billion yuan ($302 million) will definitely be realised," an FAW spokesman told Reuters by phone.
FAW sold 280,000 vehicles in the first six months of 2002, up 41 percent from the same period last year according to a statement on its Web site.
Its joint venture with Volkswagen rolls out the mid- to high-end Jetta, Audi and Bora cars and its listed unit FAW Car Co makes its own Red Flag brand.
Sales revenue was 43.15 billion yuan and profit 2.15 billion yuan, up 37.3 percent and 34.3 percent year on year respectively.
China is one of the world's fastest growing auto markets and analysts estimate full-year passenger car sales at up to one million units, which would be 39 percent higher than 2001.
But competition has intensified since the country joined the World Trade Organisation last December and lowered import tariffs for cars and components, putting pressure on domestic sales.
Second-tier auto maker Shenyang Brilliance Automotive Co Ltd reported last week a net loss of 51 million yuan due to poor showings by a leading van-making unit and a sports utility vehicle venture with U.S. General Motors Corp .
Shanghai Automotive Co Ltd , a components maker owned by China's third largest auto firm SAIC, said on Monday first-half net profit fell 10.9 percent year on year to 406.3 million yuan due to lower product prices.
But analysts are bullish on China's long-term demand for cars and many foreign producers are hoping to sell to the increasingly rich middle class, including Japan's top auto maker Toyota Motor Corp .
Toyota currently has plans to make 30,000 compact cars in China with a unit of Tianjin Auto, and Japanese media have said it was in final talks on a broader tie-up agreement with FAW.
Jiji news agency said in early August Toyota and FAW would build a new plant to make mid-size luxury cars based on Toyota's Crown from 2005 in northern China's Tianjin.
The FAW spokesman declined comment. ($1=8.276 Yuan)