bmw group car sales rise 8 pct in august
UPDATE 1-BMW group car sales rise 8 pct in August September 7, 2004 6:21am ET (Reuters)
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FRANKFURT, Sept 7 (Reuters) - German luxury carmaker BMW's group car sales rose 8.0 percent in August to 80,522 units, the company said on Tuesday, keeping it on track for record results in 2004.
For the first eight months of 2004, deliveries rose 7.9 percent to 769,086 vehicles despite sluggish conditions in the global car market and weakness in its home market of Germany, where overall new car registrations eased again last month.
Turnover got a boost from a 9.6 percent rise in sales of BMW brand vehicles to 68,653 units, while sales of the Mini compact car eased 0.5 percent to 11,812 cars.
Ultra-luxury unit Rolls-Royce delivered 57 Phantom limousines in August, bringing the total to 415 this year.
BMW has forecast car sales will grow by a high single-digit percentage in 2004, paving the way for it to generate record earnings, revenues and car sales.
The August figures helped the Munich-based carmaker maintain its lead over arch-rival Mercedes Car Group, a unit of DaimlerChrysler AG , whose sales in the first eight months dipped 4.7 percent to 760,300 amid model changeovers.
Shares in BMW edged up 0.1 percent to 34.79 euros by 1009 GMT, underperforming an 0.3 percent gain in the DJ Stoxx European car sector index .
