TRADING in a Chinese construction equipment maker has been suspended after a media report said its sales data were false.

Regional managers were suspected of falsifying sales data in central China for 2012, Guangzhou-based Xin Kuai Bao newspaper reported. Several customers in Hunan, Hubei and Jiangxi provinces placed big orders with Zoomlion and cancelled them months later, the paper said, citing sales documents. The orders were counted by Zoomlion as sales.

Both Hong Kong- and Shenzhen-listed shares of Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science and Technology Co were suspended yesterday.

The company is carefully verifying relevant data and is still suspended today pending a clarification, Zoomlion said in a statement last night.

This was the second time this year that Zoomlion was forced to halt stock trading by news reports questioning its sales figures.

In January, Hong Kong's Ming Pao Daily reported it had received an unsigned letter alleging Zoomlion had inflated its sales growth.