The Korea Herald reports that China overtook Korea as the world’s fifth largest automobile manufacturing nation last year.

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The Korea Automotive Research Institute (KARI) said that Korean automakers domestically manufactured 3,148,000 cars last year, less than China’s 3,251,000.

KARI said that China was able to jump from No. 8 in 2001 to the No. 5 spot last year, as a number of operations ramped up production in 2002.

KARI added that the United States maintained its No. 1 rank by having produced a total of 12,285,000 cars, followed by Japan with 8,537,000, Germany with 5,470,000 and France with 3,376,000 cars.

“Automobile production in China is headed upward and it will do so for a considerable amount of time in the future,” said Yoo Chan-yong, a research fellow of KARI, in remarks reported by the Herald.

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