【英语中国】中国市场需求旺盛 德国豪华车销量大幅攀升

FRANKFURT-Germany's car industry is rebounding faster than anyone predicted and spurring growth across its broader economy, thanks in particular to a luxury-car boom in China and a weaker euro.

The latest global sales figures from German premium car makers Thursday showed that the nation's biggest auto companies are recovering from the severest industry downturn in decades more forcefully than many industry executives and analysts had anticipated.

Many industry watchers predicted just months ago that it would be 2012 before many car makers returned to prerecession levels. Volkswagen AG's Audi, though, said Thursday it expected to reach a record number of cars sales this year by topping one million after sales climbed 19% to 554,950 in the first half.

BMW AG, meantime, reported a 12% increase in companywide June sales to 143,157 cars and a 13% rise to nearly 700,000 cars in the first half.

Earlier this week, Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz reported its best June sales ever: a 13% increase to 113,300 cars. For the year's first half, Mercedes sales rose 15% to 556,700 due to strong demand for its new E- and S-Class models. However, Daimler's Smart small car struggled, with sales falling 17% year-over-year in the first half.

'The automobile market, in some cases, is recovering much faster than expected,' said BMW's head of sales and marketing, Ian Robertson. 'We aim to continue this upward trend in the second half of the year.'

As BMW, Audi and other car makers add production shifts and ramp up orders to suppliers, the rebound is rippling across the country's economy, in which one in five German jobs is tied to the car industry.

After slashing inventories to adjust to the recession last year, now 'some suppliers are struggling just to keep up with orders,' said Kai Bliesener of the IG Metall union's chapter in Baden-Württemberg, the region that is home to Daimler and Porsche AG. He added that many have added shifts or restored workers' reduced hours.

Such efforts led to a higher-than-expected 2.6% surge in German manufacturing output in May, the government reported Wednesday.

The unexpected heft in the country's auto-industry recovery, executives say, is coming from multiple fronts: Sales in the U.S. and emerging markets have surged. But the largest factor is China, where BMW more than doubled sales in the first half to 75,615 cars, as did Mercedes, to 60,500 cars. Audi's China sales in the same period shot up 64% to nearly 110,000 vehicles.

The fast-growing number of affluent Chinese car buyers tends to prefer longe luxury sedans loaded with extras, making them more profitable for the makers.

The weakened euro also has aided car companies by boosting the margins of vehicles exported from Europe to the U.S. and China. This benefit, analysts say, is likely to be evident in German car makers' second-quarter earnings reports due later this month.

To meet demand, Audi say it plans to keep its two German plants producing throughout August instead of shutting them for their normal three-week summer break. It has added Saturday shifts to both its Ingolstadt site, to help boost production of its A3 and A4 models, and its Neckarsulm factory, where its larger A6 and A8 models are manufactured.

BMW is cutting its typical August break at its plant in the eastern Bavarian town of Dingolfing to just one week, and would have done away with that 'if not because of needed repairs,' said spokesman Michael Rebstock.

At BMW's Leipzig site, workers are producing cars now on most Saturdays and the factory's traditional one-week break between Christmas and New Year's has already been cancelled.

Despite the bullish outlook among auto makers, some analysts warn that it remains uncertain whether demand will continue at the same pace, particularly in the U.S. and parts of Europe during the second half. It's also unclear when and whether the fledgling auto boom will translate into broader economic prosperity-particularly German job growth.

-By Vanessa Fuhrmans

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Copyright (c) 2010 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

德国汽车工业目前的复苏速度超出所有人意料，并推动德国经济普遍增长，这尤其要归功于中国的豪华汽车购买潮以及欧元疲弱。

周四发布的德国高端汽车制造商最新全球销售数据显示，该国大型汽车公司正从几十年来最严重的行业低迷中复苏，而复苏的力度超出诸多行业高管及分析人士的预计。

就在数月前，许多行业观察者还预测，众多汽车制造商要等到2012年才能恢复到衰退前的水平。但大众汽车(Volkswagen AG)旗下的奥迪(Audi)周四宣布，在上半年汽车销量攀升19%至554,950辆之后，预计今年的销量将创出突破一百万辆的记录。

与此同时，宝马汽车公司(BMW AG)称6月份公司销量增长12%至143,157辆，上半年销量增长13%，接近700,000辆。

本周早些时候，戴姆勒公司(Daimler AG)属下的梅赛德斯-奔驰(Mercedes-Benz)宣布6月销量创下史上最佳：增长13%至113,300辆。今年上半年，梅赛德斯销量增长15%至556,700辆，主要原因是其新型E级和S级车型需求旺盛。但戴姆勒公司的Smart品牌小型汽车销量不佳，上半年销量同比下滑17%。

宝马销售及市场拓展负责人罗伯森(Ian Robertson)说，汽车市场正在以比预计快得多的速度复苏，他还预计下半年将延续这一上行趋势。

随着宝马、奥迪及其它汽车制造商增加生产班次及供应商订单，汽车业复苏的影响正波及德国整个经济，因在德国，五分之一的工作岗位与汽车业有关。

巴登符腾堡地区是戴姆勒及保时捷(Porsche AG)公司所在地。德国工会组织IG Metall 设在该地区分会的布列泽纳(Kai Bliesener)说，在去年削减库存以适应经济衰退后，目前一些供应商要完成订单还存在困难。他说，许多公司已增加了班次，并恢复了缩减的工时。

德国政府周三宣布，所有这些举措使德国5月份制造业产出超出预期大幅攀升2.6%。

行业高管们说，德国汽车业恢复出人意料是由多种因素推动的，美国及新兴市场上的汽车销量均有大幅增长，但最大的推动力在于中国市场。上半年宝马在华销量增长了一倍多，至75,615辆，梅德塞斯也增长至60,500辆。同期奥迪在华销量也增长64%至接近110,000辆。

富裕的中国汽车消费者数量迅速增长，并倾向于购买加载了各种附加功能的加长豪华轿车，使得这类汽车制造商更有利可图。

而欧元疲软也增加了从欧洲出口至美国及中国的汽车盈利，使欧洲汽车制造商获益。分析人士说，这种获益在德国汽车制造商于本月晚些时候发布的二季度盈利中会有显著体现。

奥迪公司说，为满足需求，该公司计划让其两家德国生产厂在8月份继续运营而非像以往那样放三周的暑期假。该公司在因戈尔施塔特的工厂已增加了周六的工作班次，以增加A3及A4车型的产量；生产更大型的A6及A8车型的内卡苏姆工厂也一样。

宝马发言人雷布斯托克(Michael Rebstock)说，宝马将东部巴伐利亚镇丁格芬工厂8月份的常规假期减至一周，而且如果不是必要的检修的话，可能不会放假。

宝马在莱比锡的工厂内，大多数周六时间工人仍上班。这家工厂传统上在圣诞节与新年间有一周的假期，现在已被取消了。

尽管汽车制造商前景不错，但某些分析人士警告说，下半年需求是否会持续仍不确定，特别是美国及欧洲部分国家。同时，也不清楚刚刚起步的汽车消费热潮何时或是否会推动经济普遍繁荣，特别是德国的就业增长。