SHANGHAI -- China's major carmaker SAIC Motor sold 381,000 vehicles overseas in the first half of 2022, up 47.7 percent from the same period last year, the company said Thursday.

Despite COVID-19, the overseas sales of the Shanghai-based carmaker went up 59.4 percent year-on-year to 84,000 units in June. Its target is to sell 800,000 vehicles overseas this year.

From January to June, SAIC Motor sold more than 2.23 million vehicles, close to the sales of the same period in 2021.

The carmaker said it will continue cooperating with upstream and downstream partners in the industrial chain to speed up its production and sales in the second half of 2022.

Since the beginning of this year, the COVID-19 epidemic has impacted auto bases of Changchun, Shanghai, and cities in Guangdong and Hubei provinces. Local authorities have actively responded to the impact of the epidemic, helping auto producers resume production, develop new-energy vehicles, and boost automobile exports.