The Chinese car maker Geely increased its profits in the first half of the year thanks to the recovery in the world’s largest car market, China. The profit increased by four percent to 2.38 billion yuan (equivalent to 313 million euros) compared to the same period last year, as Geely announced on Wednesday. The number of cars sold rose 19 percent to 630,237. Revenue climbed 22 percent to 45 billion yuan. Geely is cautiously optimistic for the year as a whole. “We assume that the rise in raw material prices will weaken in the further course of the year, but the chip shortage could continue during this period,” it said. However, the imminent market launch of new vehicle models should compensate for this. The company is therefore sticking to its sales target of 1.53 million vehicles for the year as a whole. Geely currently sells 90 percent of its cars in China, but has been trying for years to increase exports and especially to penetrate the Southeast Asian and European markets.