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