Sources from Ministry of Commerce said Germany has replaced Japan to become China's biggest automobile import source during the first quarter of 2004.

Statistics released by the Mechanical and Electrical Products Import and Export Department under the Ministry of Commerce showed that in 2003, China imported a total of 171,325 cars. Forty-nine percent of them were from Japan, 26 percent from Germany and 12 percent from the Republic of Korea (ROK). Others were imported from the United States, Sweden, Turkey and Britain.

However, the country's automobile import structure was dramatically changed during the first quarter this year. China imported 46,833 cars in the first three months of 2004. Thirty percent of them were imported from Germany, 27 percent from Japan and another 27 percent were from ROK.

Sources from the Ministry of Commerce said the drop of China's automobile import from Japan was due to the fact that an increasing number of Japanese brand cars have been assembled in China.

The sources also said most of imported cars were comparatively luxury and unique, which domestic automobile factories were not able to produce.