The 11th China Special Purpose Vehicle Expo ended

    The 11th China Special Purpose Vehicle Expo ended on Saturday in east China's Shandong Province, attracting more than 240 firms amid a forecast of market growth.

    The three-day expo in Liangshan County, the country's special purpose vehicle industry base, provided more than 500 exhibition booths for companies in special purpose vehicles and parts manufacturing as well as maintenance and transport, organizers said.

    A 50-sq-km special purpose vehicle industrial park in Liangshan has attracted nearly 300 companies with an annual capacity of 150,000 vehicles and 6.5 million auto parts. Annual revenue hit 17 billion yuan (2.7 billion U.S. dollars), including 180 million U.S. dollars in exports.

    Specialized economic sectors will boost demand for special purpose vehicles, said Wang Huanmin, an official with the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers at a forum during the expo.

    China has 1,037 special purpose vehicle manufacturing companies with a production of 770,000 vehicles in the first seven months, according to the association.