First Automotive Works (FAW), China's leading automaker, will sell five million sets of self-developed wheels in four series and 13 varieties to the United States, under a five-year contract.

The 500 million yuan (61.7 million US dollars) contract was inked between the Wheel Branch of FAW Sihuan Co. and an American company which preferred to remain anonymous, during the fourth Changchun International Auto Expo.

According to FAW sources, FAW Sihuan Co. is now the exclusive purveyor to Beijing Hyundai, a Sino-ROK (Republic of Korea) car joint venture, and a major wheel supplier for domestic coach giant Yutong Company.

Liu Bin, the marketing manager of the Wheel Branch, said, "We have received orders from companies in Australia and the United States. We will also supply wheels to some world-famous automakers such as General Motors (GM) and Volvo."

Liu said, in the first half of the year, the company has increased its export sales by 67 percent year on year.

In 2004, China exported 5.63 billion yuan (695 million US dollars) of auto spare parts, up 73.2 percent over the previous year, compared to the imports of 7.93 billion yuan (979 million US dollars), which represented a a year-on-year drop of 4.5 percent, said Deputy secretary Shen Ningwu with the China Automotive Industry Association.

Shen said, the Ministry of Commerce and the association have made it an objective to expand exports of spare parts to four billion US dollars by 2010.

The fourth International Auto Expo was held between Aug. 5 and 14 in Changchun, capital of northeast China's Jilin Province. About 600 motor vehicles from 27 countries and regions participated in the expo.

Source: Xinhua