Kubota Corp., Asia’s largest tractor maker, expects machinery sales in China to slow this year as the market is becoming saturated, President Yasuo Masumoto said.

Chinese sales of machinery such as tractors and combines may rise 29 percent to 51.6 billion yen ($557 million) in the year ending March 2011, Masumoto said today at a news conference in Osaka, where the company is based. That compares with a 48 percent increase to 40 billion yen in the year just ended.

“Sales growth in China is slowing compared with what we had been expecting last year,” Masumoto said.

Overall revenue is expected to rise 7.5 percent this year to 1 trillion yen on demand for machinery and infrastructure equipment such as steel pipes, while net income is forecast to increase 23 percent to 52 billion yen, Kubota said in a full- year earnings statement.