Car sales recover from Islands dispute

China's passenger car sales powered 11.7 percent year on year in October after recovering from a decline in Japanese auto deliveries due to the Diaoyu Islands dispute between the two countries.

Deliveries of sedans, sport-utility vehicles, multi-purpose vehicles and minivans climbed to 1.25 million units last month from a year earlier, posting a recovery from the 2.6 percent drop in September when the decline in Japanese car sales hit the general market performance, the China Passenger Car Association said yesterday.

Chinese consumers changed their minds about buying Japanese cars when the dispute flared up in September, which then saw a large part of the pent-up demand unleashed in October fueling the sales spike. But the association said the sluggish performance of Japanese cars, whose October sales tumbled 56.5 percent from a year ago and 34.5 percent from September, had limited impact on China's overall market.