China is expected to manufacture 5.5 million automobiles this year, 2.5 million of which will be sedans, a spokesman for the State Development and Reform Commission (SDRC) said at a press conference Tuesday in Beijing.

China's output of large and medium-sized tractors this year is expected to hit 110,000, the SDRC spokesman said.

China's sedan output reached 1.34 million in the first half of this year, up 5.2 percent year-on-year, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics.

China's sedan output reached 275,100 in June, up 26 percent from the same period last year, after the seasonal adjustment in May.

China's auto industry saw a profit fall of 48.8 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2005, as against a 12.6 percent growth in the same period last year,

The profit of China's auto industry plunged by 20.6 billion yuan (about 2.54 billion US dollars), which was a major reason for the profit down slide of the machinery industry, SDRC reported.

Source: Xinhua