Gasgoo.com (Shanghai October 28) - "With this year's macroeconomic tightening, several own brand enterprises are seeing their profit drop severely," Assistant Secretary of the China Passenger Car Association Cui Dongshu said in an interview with Caijing today. Mr. Cui added that appreciated of the yuan is helping joint ventures gain a competitive advantage in the market, while costs for imported auto parts have decreased.

Statistics from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) show that 13.63 million vehicles were sold in the first third quarters, equal to a year-on-year increase of 3.62 percent. As a result, the CAAM revised sales predictions for this year down three percent. Meanwhile, the National Bureau of Statistics' China Economic Monitoring and Analysis Center gave the automobile industry an index rating of 100.7 points this past quarter. This is the fifth consecutive time the industry has seen its index ranking decrease.

On the other side of the spectrum, foreign joint ventures continue to sustain steady positive growth. Taking SAIC's partnerships as an example, Shanghai Volkswagen sold nearly 860,000 vehicles tin the first three quarters, growing 20 percent from 2010, while Shanghai GM managed sales of over 920,000 vehicles, growing 24.9 percent. Those growth rate figures are far higher than the average for domestic manufacturers.