Profits for 2009 hit 1.63 billion yuan (US$238.8 million) for China's FAW Car Co. This was an 49.8% increase.
FAW Car is the listed unit of China FAW Group, the nation's second-largest auto maker by sales after SAIC Motor and one of Volkswagen's partners in China.
The car maker, which is scheduled to release its audited annual report in late April, said it had "successfully grasped the opportunity of fast market growth" last year.
The company said its unaudited revenue rose 37% last year to 27.74 billion yuan, according to a preliminary 2009 earnings announcement filed with the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. Its earnings in 2008 were 1.09 billion yuan.
Chinese auto makers have benefited from soaring auto sales in 2009 due to government policy incentives, outstripping those of the United States for the first time last year to make the Asian giant the world's biggest auto market. These incentive measures, mostly extended into 2010, included slashing taxes on cars with engines smaller than 1.6 liters and subsidizing clean-technology vehicles.
Annual sales rose 46% to 13.6 million vehicles in 2009, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2010
