economy - Automotive industry back to 4 percent profit

China's automotive industry made last year four percent profit, the Shanghai Daily reported yesterday, back from 9.11 percent in 2003 and even higher in the years before. It now has a profitability that is the average in China, but the main question is, whether it will maintain on that level.
Increased competitiveness and lowering of the import barriers have demolished the protective measures that made the automotive industry highly profitable in the 1990s and lured many foreign car markers into this market. A drop in the domestic growth of the market and the inability to export larger numbers of cars have been other problems for the industry.
Production went up last year to 2.95 million cars, up 26.8 percent compared to 2004.