Volvo aims to boost 2011 China sales to 50,000
Volvo Car Corp. aims to sell 50,000 cars in China this year, up from slightly more than 30,000 units last year, a senior executive said.
Richard Snijders, CEO of Volvo's China distribution unit, made the forecast in comments last week to reporters here.
In the second quarter, Volvo's unit sales in China rose 62 percent from the year-ago period, Volvo reported last week.
Volvo, a former unit of Ford Motor Co., was purchased by Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. in 2010. It was China's largest overseas auto motive acquisition.
In February, Volvo CEO Stefan Jacoby unveiled a plan to invest as much as $11 billion (70 billion yuan) globally in product development and facilities over five years.
Last week, Volvo reported higher earnings for the second quarter, boosted largely by increased new-car sales in China, Europe and North America.
The automaker said operating earnings before interest and taxes was 600 million kronor ($95 million), up 170 million kronor from the same period last year.
Revenue was 33.5 billion yuan, up 3.6 billion yuan from the year-earlier period. Second-quarter retail sales rose 27 percent to 123,919 units.
Earlier this year, Volvo announced plans to boost capacity and add 600 blue-collar workers.
