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MILAN, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Fiat's share of its key Italian new car market will be 29 to 30 percent for January, the head of the company's Fiat/Lancia business unit said on Tuesday, reflecting recovery from below-forecast levels late last year.
Gianni Coda said on the sidelines of a conference that total new auto sales in Italy for the month would be about 230,000. That would compare with sales of 143,500 units in December.
He added that orders for Fiat's new models -- which the automaker has said it was counting on to reverse a long slide in sales and stem deep losses -- were "good" both in Italy and in foreign markets.
Fiat in December had a local market share of 27.6 percent, shy of a forecast of 28.2-28.4 percent in November, itself a downward revision from an earlier target of maintaining its share at around 30 percent.
Fiat shares were up 1.4 percent at 1044 GMT, slightly outperforming the DJ Stoxx auto index , which was 1.1 percent higher.