China’s automobile production and sales rose month on month in May, with exports surging 68.7 percent from a year earlier, industry data showed Wednesday.
During the period, automobile production and sales reached 2.616 million units and 2.629 million units respectively, up 1.6 percent and 4.1 percent month on month, while down 1.2 percent and 2.1 percent year on year, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM).
The country's automobile exports continued to see robust growth in May, with monthly exports reaching 930,000 units, up 68.7 percent year on year, including 446,000 new energy vehicles (NEVs), which more than doubled from a year earlier. The export volume maintained above 900,000 units for two consecutive months, data showed.
The NEV output rose 22.4 percent year on year to 1.554 million units, while sales increased 14.4 percent to 1.496 million units, according to the data.
NEVs accounted for 56.9 percent of total new car sales in May, further climbing from the previous month.
In the first five months, vehicle exports reached 4.059 million units, up 63 percent year on year. NEV exports reached 1.833 million units, accounting for 45 percent of total automobile exports.
China's auto exports surge 68.7 pct in May as output, sales rise
Iran said on Wednesday it had struck several military bases of the United States in the region in retaliation for the latest wave of U.S. attacks on Iran, further straining the ceasefire after Iran and Israel traded missile attacks in a recent major escalation.
Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) said Wednesday that it launched a drone attack on the U.S. Fifth Fleet in Bahrain in response to the U.S. attacks on southern Iran, adding that it downed a U.S. MQ-9 drone in Iran's Bushehr Province.
The IRGC said it also targeted Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait with drones, as well as four sites at the U.S. al-Azraq base in Jordan using long-range missiles, Iranian media reported.
"In the event of continued hostility, heavier responses are on the way," the IRGC said in a statement.
The U.S. strikes began at 17:00 ET (2100 GMT) Tuesday, according to the U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East.
The command said it struck Iranian air defense, ground control stations and surveillance radar sites near the strait with munitions from the U.S. Air Force and Navy fighter jets.
A series of explosions was reported early Wednesday in the southern Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas, as well as Qeshm Island and Sirik County, triggering the activation of air defenses, the state-run IRIB news agency said, citing sources.
Meanwhile, the IRGC said that U.S. forces attacked several locations in Jask, Sirik and Qeshm, damaging a telecommunications mast and destroying two water tanks in Sirik.
Hours later, the command said it had completed strikes against Iran, which was confirmed by the IRIB.
The latest wave of U.S. attacks came after U.S. President Donald Trump claimed that Tehran had shot down a U.S. Apache helicopter in the Strait of Hormuz, vowing "very strong, very powerful" response.
However, the IRIB news agency quoted a military source as saying that "no offensive aerial military operation was carried out" over the Strait of Hormuz within the past 24 hours.
Iran strikes US bases in response to attacks
