China surpassed the United States in 2008 as the world's second-largest auto maker and could overtake Japan as the top global car manufacturer in 2009, according to an industry watcher.

China manufactured 9.3 million cars in 2008 compared to 8.7 million cars in the U.S., iSuppli Corp. (El Segundo, Calif.) said Thursday (March 26). It estimates that China will produce 8.7 million autos this year while Japanese auto production drops to 7.6 million.

"China during the last five years more than doubled its domestic automobile production, while U.S. manufacturing has declined by nearly 50 percent," iSuppli automotive analyst Egil Juliussen said in a statement. "China will have the lowest production cutback of any nation and will become the auto production leader in 2009," Juliussen predicted.

As recently as 2003, U.S. auto manufacturers were outpacing Chinese production by a ratio of 3 to 1. By 2008, Chinese production was nearly 7 percent greater than the U.S.

Chinese production totals include passenger cars and light trucks built by domestic manufacturers and joint venture partners like General Motors, Honda, Toyota and Volkswagen.

Meanwhile, iSuppli said, the decline in U.S. auto making is being hastened by the outsourcing of a "major portion" of manufacturing of cars for the U.S. market to Canada and Mexico.

By: DocMemory
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