TOYOTA posted a sales turnaround in May after recovering from a diplomatic spat between Japan and China last year, but the automaker may miss its target of selling 900,000 units this year in China.

Toyota yesterday said that its China sales edged up 0.3 percent year on year to 79,000 units last month. As one of the automakers most affected by China's anti-Japanese boycott over the Diaoyu Islands dispute, the increase marked the first time the sales rose since January when they surged 23.5 percent from a year earlier.

Toyota then suffered a relapse in the following three months and its sales fell 11 percent in the January-April period. This doesn't bode well for its target of selling 900,000 units in China this year, which represents a 7.1 percent increase.

At the Shanghai Auto Show in April, Hiroji Onishi, Toyota's China head, said its original expectation was for sales to come back in half a year but now the company has to push harder to unveil new products in the autumn.

The cars set to be rolled out include the revamped Yaris and Vios, the no-frills small cars Toyota counts on to gain back lost ground in China's entry-level car market.

Its Japanese rival Mazda, whose sales fell 11.6 percent last month, also pins its hopes on new product releases to woo back Chinese drivers. From this month it will start localization of the CX-5, CX-7 and Atenza models.