Jun. 28, 2006 (China Knowledge) – China would limit domestic companies' entrée to the automobile export business next year, an official from Ministry of Commerce said Monday.

Zhang Ji, deputy director of the Electromechanical, Science and Technology Department of China’s Ministry of Commerce, said that the government would restrict the number of companies that could export vehicles through the use of export licenses.

Under the new ruling, only companies with a large sufficient export volume would be awarded these export licenses.

He also said that a strategic alliance will be established among the China Ocean Shipping Corp., the China Export and Credit Insurance Corp. and main automobile exporters by August in order to curb competition.

According to the Xinhua news agency, China's automobile production takes up 10% of the worlds total as its export volume accounts for less than 1% of the world’s export volume