China, however, seems to be bucking this trend, according to Bruce Belzowski, assistant research scientist in the automotive analysis division of the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, Ann Arbor, Mich.

"[The Chinese automotive industry] is a growing industry, despite the global automotive recession," he says. "It's one of the few markets that continues to grow."

But this development isn't necessarily sustainable. Although the outlook is generally positive for China's automotive industry, there are elements of uncertainty.

"We're not sure how long it's going to continue to grow and what kinds of moves the government is going to make to accommodate more vehicles," says Belzowski. "Because if you think about the larger countries like India and China, if they actually consumed the same amount of oil as, say, the United States, there wouldn't be any oil left in a short period of time. It's something that everyone is watching closely."

World stage
Another occurrence that garnered attention was a plan by General Motors Co., Detroit, to begin exporting Chinese-made vehicles, primarily small cars, to the United States.

"In a presentation GM provided to some congressional offices, the automaker said it plans to import 17,335 vehicles from China to the United States in 2011 and 38,351 in 2012," according to a May 18 Chicago Tribune article. "The number of imported vehicles from China is expected to grow to 53,302 in 2013 and 51,546 in 2014. That would be less than 2 percent of the 3 million vehicles GM sold in the United States last year--about one-third of which already are made overseas."

This plan doesn't seem to be finalized, but on June 26, GM announced that the company's future small cars would be made at its assembly plant in Orion Township, Mich., and its stamping facility in Pontiac, Mich.

But Belzowski says it's no surprise GM has at least considered exporting Chinese-made vehicles to the United States.

"What led them to do that is their understanding of the global automotive industry and [GM] being a global automotive company," he says. "[GM] had always been an international company, with parts of their company in Europe for many years and South America and Asia. But it wasn't until the last 10 years, and in some ways, the advent of information technology that really allowed them to take the next steps, to have instant communication with the rest of the world. I think that led them to become more global."

Future plans
GM isn't the only automotive manufacturer that has set up shop in China. Belzowski says almost all the major companies are there.

"The Chinese demanded that they build factories there rather than import into China," he says. "Not only are they there selling vehicles, they're building them there."

It's independent Chinese companies, though, that do most of the country's automotive exporting. But most of those vehicles and components are going to developing, not developed, markets.

"They're sending to South Africa, the Middle East and Central Europe as a way of learning how to be global companies," says Belzowski. "The whole process of exporting and building your vehicles and then shipping them there and maintaining them--how are you going to do that for every country in the world that you want to sell vehicles? It's not an easy task, and it's an expensive task. They're really testing the waters on how to be global companies." MM