BEIJING IS encouraging its biggest carmakers - Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp, FAW, Dongfeng and Changan - to lead consolidation of its automobile industry.
The plan is likely to attract global attention because the plight of several ailing carmakers in the US and Europe has repeatedly triggered rumours that Chinese carmakers could come to the rescue.
While the state council called on carmakers to develop their brands and pledged support for cross-border mergers as one possible means of doing that, the plan focuses on domestic industry consolidation.
The cabinet said it would seek significant progress in restructuring the industry and wanted "to create two to three big carmaking groups with output of more than two million vehicles a year, and four to five carmaking groups with output of more than 1m vehicles" by the end of 2011.
- FT service