Volvo car sales rise 3.7 percent in October, China again top market
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Chinese-owned carmaker Volvo Car Group said on Tuesday sales of its cars rose 3.7 percent year-on-year in October as growth in China helped it to its fourth straight month of rising sales.
The Sweden-based company sold 36,127 cars in October as sales shot up 50 percent in China and 13 percent in countries outside core European countries, the United States and China, eclipsing declines in Europe and the United States.
The company, which ran a loss in the first half of the year, said in a statement that China was its single biggest market for the second straight month in October.
Volvo is looking to strong growth in China, the home of its parent Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. , to propel it toward a target of roughly doubling sales to 800,000 cars by 2020.
After suffering dismal sales last year, sales of Volvo models such as the S60 and XC60 have lately begun picking up in many of its markets though weakness in North America, traditionally its largest market by far, has lingered.
For the January to October period, sales were down 0.2 percent.
(Reporting by Sven Nordenstam; editing by Niklas Pollard)
