Mitsubishi's domestic sales rise

Mitsubishi's domestic sales rise

TOKYO: Japan's Mitsubishi Motors Corp. said on Monday its domestic sales rose 3.4 percent in 2003 to 367,040 units, but its exports were down 6.2 percent at 389,947 units.

The Japanese automaker, owned by DaimlerChrysler AG, said its domestic automobile production fell 3.4 percent from a year before to 749,371 units.

Overseas production was down 7.7 percent at 830,796 units.

Meanwhile, Mitsubishi Motors also said that the company will establish a passenger car sales subsidiary in Iraq, becoming the first Japanese automaker to make a full-scale entry into the automobile market in postwar Iraq.

Mitsubishi plans to open its first car dealership in Baghdad by summer this year, and hopes to expand its network into other cities in Iraq, the Mitsubishi officials said.

The sales subsidiary in Iraq will be a fifty-fifty joint venture between Mitsubishi and a Bahraini company. -- DPA