Gasgoo.com (Shanghai January 11) - China Passenger Car Association statistics show that 13.7 million passenger automobiles were sold in 2011, increasing 2.8 percent from the previous year, National Business Daily reported today. CPCA statistics also show that passenger automobile sales in December fell slightly, totaling 1.42 million units.

According to the CPCA figures, a total of 1.36 million vehicles were manufactured in December, while 14.42 million were manufactured over the course of the year. CPCA General Secretary Rao Da was pleased with the December results, saying that inventories not only did not increase, but actually somewhat decreased.

Mr. Rao is also suspicious that the December sales figures are the way they are because some manufacturers may have hidden the total amount to help make numbers in January, which has far less working days, seem higher.

Looking at the overall figures, Mr. Rao concludes that domestic manufacturers' inventories have increased by 700,000 units this year. Additionally, he believes that end user sales, in reality, fell slightly in 2011.

Mr. Rao is worried about how the industry will fare in the first quarter of 2012. "Inventories have not only reached their maximum limit [in 2011], [but] it seems that they will continue to increase," he said, adding that, "nobody is especially optimistic about the automobile market this year."