Volkswagen global sales deliveries increase by 6.7%

Volkswagen AG said its worldwide deliveries increased by nearly 7 percent in July despite the global recession that has ravaged the sector this year. The Wolfsburg-based company said sales of all brands rose to 556,900 vehicles in July, compared with 521,100 in the same month a year ago. The year-ago results don't include those of truckmaker Scania, which it recently started accounting.

Global sales for the first seven months, however, fell about 4 percent to 3.7 million vehicles from 3.8 million in the January-July period of 2008.

VW said sales in Germany increased 27 percent for the month to 113,700 vehicles from about 90,000 a year ago, largely because of the government's car scrapping program which pays consumers to trade in their old cars for more efficient ones.

China also contributed strongly to the results, with deliveries increasing almost 70 percent to 127,900 vehicles from 76,000 in July a year ago. Shares of VW were about 8 percent lower, however, on news of the merger with Porsche and declines in world markets. The stock closed down 9.9 percent at euro171.82 (US$242.09) in Frankfurt.