国际英语新闻：France's Renault reports record sales in 2010

PARIS, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- Renault, France's second biggest carmaker, on Monday announced high sales of its brands last year thanks to resilient demands mainly in booming Asian markets.

In a statement released on its website, the French carmaker saw its sales grow by 14 percent last year compared with 2009 performance after providing world markets with 2.6 million vehicles.

"We are delighted with the new sales record set by the group in 2010, breaking our standing record from 2005. We are making progress in all regions and pursuing our international offensive. All the group's brands are contributing to this momentum," said Jerome Stoll, the company's executive vice president for sales and marketing.

Demand of emerging markets rose by 26 percent, where the French firm sold 983,000 units, prompting a 19.4 percent growth in those countries, according to Renault.

In Europe, Renault increased its sales to boost its share market by 1.1 percentage points. European countries absorbed 1.642 million cars, up 7.4 percent from 2009.

The country's leading carmaker expects to maintain growth this year, betting on more than 4 percent growth in the global market.

"With the global market in 2011 expected to grow by more than 4 percent over 2010, the group will pursue its growth on buoyant markets outside Europe," Stoll said.

"In 2011 we will be pursuing two main thrusts: to step up our international expansion through all the brands and to launch our range of electric vehicles in the second half of the year," he added.

Renault's net income stood at 823 million euros (1.06 billion U.S. dollars) for the first six months of 2010 after falling by 2.7 billion euros (3.49 billion dollars) over the same period in 2009 due to a recession which clouded the automobile sector.