Nissan Motor Co. delivered 188,400 vehicles in China in the first two months of this year, an increase of 1 percent from the same period a year earlier.

 

The Japanese automaker's strong results in January were offset by weaker volume in February.

 

Nissan's deliveries dropped 13 percent year on year to 61,100 vehicles last month after rising 9 percent to 127,300 vehicles in January.

 

This year, the Lunar New Year holiday was celebrated in early February. That triggered strong car buying in January, but hurt sales the following month.

 

Industry analysts usually wait for February results before drawing conclusions about market trends.

 

In the first two months, Mazda Motor Corp.'s China sales dropped 4.1 percent year on year to 38,855 vehicles. After increasing 6 percent in January, Mazda's February sales plunged 19 percent from a year earlier to 12,901 vehicles.

 

In January and February, Toyota Motor Corp.'s sales jumped 22 percent to 190,500 vehicles, while Honda Motor Co.'s deliveries rose 9 percent to 164,727 vehicles.