China's auto manufacturing sector saw its profits bounce back into positive territory in the first eight months of 2020 as the auto market maintained recovery momentum, industry data showed.

The sector's profits climbed 1.5 percent year on year to reach 308.48 billion yuan (about 45.4 billion U.S. dollars), putting an end to the year-on-year profit decline scenario, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), citing data from the National Bureau of Statistics.

The sector's profits accounted for 8.3 percent of the total profits among industrial companies with annual revenue of more than 20 million yuan, up 0.2 percentage points from the share for the January-July period.

China's auto market has rapidly recovered from the COVID-19 crash in recent months. The country's auto sales rose 11.6 percent in August from a year earlier, the fifth straight rise after plunging during the lockdown.

Thanks to the better-than-expected market recovery, China's new energy vehicle (NEV) sales surged 26 percent year on year in August. Sales of passenger vehicles also expanded 8.9 percent last month, registering the fastest growth since May 2018.

China's auto market, which was hit hard by the COVID-19 epidemic, started to recover in April, thanks to unleashed pent-up demand and supportive policies.

(With input from Xinhua)