Is China's Auto Industry running Out of Gas?
The glitz and glamour of China's auto sector appear to be fading, especially for domestic non-auto companies.
Some Chinese firms have abandoned their dreams of motoring into the nation's once highly lucrative auto sector.
AUX, the privately owned home appliance producer in East China's Zhejiang Province, announced last month it had withdrawn from the auto sector.
That announcement came a year after AUX unveiled plans to invest 8 billion yuan (US$966 million) to produce vehicles and build, by 2008, an annual production capacity of 450,000 units.
In late 2003, the company paid 40 million yuan (US$4.8 million) to acquire a 95-per-cent stake of an ailing auto firm, controlled by a local government, in Northeast China's Liaoning Province. AUX planned to produce low-cost sport utility vehicles (SUVs).
