Car sales fare well in first 2 months of 2013

China's passenger car market fared well in the first two months of this year despite a sales drop in February, a traditional slack season around the Lunar New Year holiday, the China Passenger Car Association said yesterday.

China's retail passenger car sales grew 21.6 percent on an annual basis in the first two months of the year and 19.8 percent at the wholesale level, according to the association.

But deliveries of sedans, sport-utility vehicles, multi-purpose vehicles and minivans reversed 4.7 percent from a year earlier to 1.04 million units last month when most of the showrooms nationwide were shut for the week-long holiday.

However, Rao Da, the association's secretary-general, said the February performance was not "a market plummet" considering the seasonal factors.

In January, sales surged 45.9 percent partly because the holiday fell in the same month of last year.