German car exports keep growing in August, up 12 percent year-on-year

German car exports up 12 percent in August

BERLIN — German car exports kept growing in August as a healthier global economy fueled sales abroad, helping push up production, an industry group said Thursday.

German automakers exported 252,200 cars last month, a 12 percent increase compared with August 2009, the VDA group said. That was a healthier rise than the 6 percent seen in July, but short of the levels seen earlier in the year.

Strong exports helped push up production to 338,500 cars — a 4 percent increase.

German automakers such as Daimler AG, Volkswagen AG and BMW AG have seen their performance this year boosted by strong growth in China in particular, but also in the United States and elsewhere.

“Our robust position on global markets has again proved to be a strategic advantage,” VDA president Matthias Wissmann said in a statement.

Still, the group cautioned against expecting growth rates to continue at the same level. “We expect things to settle down at a pleasingly high level,” Wissmann said.

Exports for the January-August period were up 36 percent from a year earlier at 2.73 million cars. Production rose 17 percent to 3.58 million.

However, VDA reported the latest in a string of year-on-year falls in new registrations in Germany itself in August. Registrations of all new cars — German-made and imported — were down 27 percent at 201,000.

For the year so far, they dropped 29 percent to 1.91 million.

The decline reflects higher sales last year thanks to a popular government car-scrapping bonus program. That expired last fall.