China's auto market appears poised for a rebound in March after a slow Lunar New Year season, with Toyota Motor Corp.'s sales up 41 percent year on year to 100,500 vehicles.

 

Honda Motor Co. reported sales increased 15 percent to 97,004 while Nissan Motor Co. said deliveries edged up 0.5 percent to 110,200 vehicles.

 

In the first three months, Toyota sales rose nearly 28 percent to 291,000 vehicles, while Honda sales were up 11 percent. Nissan deliveries for the first three months rose only 0.8 percent to 298,000 vehicles.

 

Strong results by Toyota and Honda coincided with the release of a dealer survey by the China Automobile Dealers Association. One-third of dealers surveyed said demand increased in March, up from a mere 2.7 percent in February.

 

The survey predicted stable demand this month.

 

Car sales growth in China ground to a halt last year as the economy expanded at the slowest pace in 25 years. Sales rebounded from October due to a government tax cut on vehicles with small engines.

 

Analysts and industry insiders now are watching whether that rebound can be sustained.

 

Further turmoil in the stock market could hurt buyer demand, said Yale Zhang, Shanghai-based managing director of Automotive Foresight. Such scenarios could derail the consultancy's prediction of up to 10 percent sales growth this year, Zhang said.

 

Even as demand rebounds in March, "the pressure on the overall industry is still large," said Hui Yumei, a vice director for the dealers association.

 

Roughly 45 percent of dealers in the survey said transaction prices fell in March as dealers competed through discounts.