www.chinabuses.org: In response to public concerns about the rapidly growing Chinese auto output, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has recently said that the country's car industry is not overheated, CCTV.com reported today.

China's auto production of this year reached 10 million vehicles last week (to join the U.S. and Japan in the 10-million auto league), and may hit 13 million by the end of the year, up from 9.35 million of last year. But despite the figures, the MIIT, China's auto industry regulator, says there's no overheating yet in the auto sector.

With a large population, China's total auto output is really not very high, said Zhang Xiangmu, director of MIIT's equipment manufacturing industries division. "In terms of total vehicles produced and sold, China's figure is not too high compared to the United States, Europe and Japan."

At the beginning of this year, China started to cut sales tax by half to 5% on passenger cars with the engine size below 1.6 liters. This favorable policy, scheduled for expiry by the end of December, is highly expected to be extended to next year.

Vehicle sales in China surged by 34.24% year-on-year to 9.66 million units in the first nine months and the whole-year sales of 2009 may reach 12.6 million. China is set to overtake the U.S. as the world's largest auto market.