Auto sales to rise by double digits in 2014

China's auto market continued to grow strongly last month and is on track toward another double-digit growth for 2014, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said yesterday.

Sales of passenger cars and commercial vehicles rose 17.8 percent from a year earlier in February to 1.6 million units. But the sales fell 25.9 percent month on month as dealerships were shut during the weeklong Spring Festival holiday last month.

The combined sales of the first two months of this year rose 10.7 percent year on year to 3.75 million units.

The government's anti-pollution and frugality campaigns may cause sales to grow moderately at 10 percent this year compared with the 14 percent jump last year, according to the association.

The biggest losers could be domestic carmakers which saw their share of the passenger car market in February fall to 38.4 percent for the sixth month, down 4.6 percentage points from the same month of last year.

"China's homegrown auto industry is currently facing huge challenges," said Dong Yang, secretary-general of the association.