China and Japan spat provides work for Slovaks

Published on 9 October 2012 at 13:37

The territorial dispute between China and Japan over the Senkaku Islands (in Japanese) or Diaoyu Isles (in Chinese) is a god-send for Slovak industry, says Bratislava daily Pravda. Because of the conflict, the Chinese are boycotting Japanese vehicles and are turning to German models instead —

It is in Bratislava that the Volkswagen company makes the three big sports models asked for in China. Sales of Audi and Volkswagen rose by 20% in September. In China, the wealthy buy many luxury cars and the crisis is not really felt there.

Before the diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Tokyo, Japanese makes accounted for 20% of the Chinese market. In September, sales of Toyota, the world's largest selling brand, plummeted by 40% in the country. Conversely, explains the paper, because Bratislava is the only factory in the world to produce Volkswagen's Touareg and Audi Q7 models as well as the bodywork for the Porsche Cayenne —

... big cars continue to be produced seven days a week and there are no plans to stop production.

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