SIZZLING commercial vehicle sales and cost-reduction measures have fueled first-half profit at Dongfeng Motor Group by 27 percent, despite an overall slowdown in China's motor sales.

Earnings attributable to ordinary equity holders of the parent climbed to 2.47 billion yuan (US$363 million), or 0.29 yuan a share, from 1.95 billion yuan, or 0.23 yuan a share, from a year earlier, the car maker said in its statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange yesterday. The firm's gross profit rose 31 percent to 6.5 billion yuan.

The nation's third biggest car maker drove sales revenue 31.5 percent higher year on year to 37.8 billion yuan during the same period as it sold 27.7 percent more vehicles at 587,400 units, including 220,800 commercial vehicles and 366,600 passenger cars.

The strong showing helped Dongfeng capture a 11.3 percent market share among domestic car makers, the statement added.

However, the world's second biggest auto market also showed sign of a slowdown, affected by rising costs and weaker consumption demand.

China's vehicle sales rose 18.5 percent to 5.18 million units in the first half of this year, a drop of around 4.8 percentage points from the growth rate in the same period of last year.

Dongfeng estimated that the overall market will further slow to 15 percent to 10 million units in the second half of this year. It also targets to achieve historical sales of 1.1 million units by launching new models.