Chinese automakers have demonstrated their ambitions to tap into overseas markets at an ongoing auto show in northeast China.

A large number of automakers, from privately-owned firms to state-owned enterprises, have been making greater efforts to sell their vehicles outside of China, where sales growth has slowed after a decade-long boom.

Geely Motor, a privately-owned automaker that purchased Volvo Car Corp. in 2010, exported 50,438 vehicles in the first half of the year, up 30 percent year on year.

Sales in overseas markets account for about one-fifth of the company's total sales, according to Zhang Lin, vice president of Geely Motor.

Zhang said Geely's earlier efforts to foster overseas sales have matured and the company's international business is on the right track.

Apart from the opening of an assembly plant and the launch of its EC7 sedan in Egypt last year, Geely has completed another project in Uruguay, where the EC7 sedan, a medium- to high-end luxury vehicle launched in 2009, will be put into production with an annual single-shift capacity of about 10,000 units, according to Zhang.

According to a plan previously announced by the company, Geely will expand its overseas production to countries like Russia, Brazil, India and Iran.

Figures from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) show that China exported 486,800 vehicles in the first six months of the year, down 0.6 percent from the same period last year

Zhang said emerging markets were prioritized in the industry's initial stages of growth. "But we do have plans to enter the European and American markets gradually," he said. Expertise built up in emerging markets will help Chinese automakers gain a foothold in more developed areas.

"Chinese automakers will definitely enter the European and American markets. It is simply a question of time," Zhang said.

Source Xinhua