SHANGHAI, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Chinese carmaker Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp (SAIC) said on Thursday it sold 610,000 vehicles last year, doubling from 2001 and overtaking rivals to become China's largest vehicle maker by sales.
SAIC accelerated past the country's longstanding pre-eminent automaker First Automotive Works (FAW) -- which said earlier this month it sold 580,000 vehicles in 2002 -- helped by buoyant domestic demand in the world's fastest-growing auto market.
Turnover rose 22.4 percent to 120 billion yuan ($14.50 billion) in 2002, breaking the $10 billion mark for the first time, an SAIC spokesman told Reuters.
"We also sold more than 410,000 cars in 2002, topping the domestic market, an increase of 36 percent from a year earlier," he added.
SAIC will now shoot for double-digit growth in passenger car output this year, and expects to earn 130 billion yuan in revenue, the company said in a statement without giving comparative figures for 2002.
Global car giants such as General Motors Corp and Volkswagen AG are transfixed on a China market that has ballooned in recent years alongside rising incomes, the product of years of robust economic expansion.
China's automakers -- including foreign joint ventures -- sold 3.248 million vehicles in 2002, an increase of 37.1 percent from 2001, official statistics show.
SAIC's joint venture with Volkswagen, Shanghai Volkswagen Automotive Co Ltd, sold more than 300,000 cars in 2002, the statement said.
Car sales at SAIC's 50-50 venture with General Motors, Shanghai GM, also surged 100 percent year-on-year to more than 100,000 units in 2002. ($1=8.276 Yuan)