China Motors Corp (
"We have a secure steel supply and there are no signs that production will have to be suspended in the foreseeable future," Huang Wen-cheng (
PHOTO: KAO CHIA-HO, TAIPEI TIMES
China Motors gets its steel through a joint purchasing deal with its parent company, Yulon Motor Co (
The tight supply of steel sheeting, brought about by robust exports of Japanese vehicles and China's massive demand for steel, yesterday forced Suzuki Motor Corp, an affiliate of General Motors Corp, to announce that it will suspend its planned extra production for a total of three days this month because of a shortage of steel sheeting.
Suzuki's move came after Nissan Motors Co, Japan's second largest automaker, announced last week that it had decided to halt production over a total of five days late last month and early this month. The decision is expected to cut output by 25,000 vehicles, the company said.
Meanwhile, China Motors yesterday unveiled a new imported vehicle, the Mitsubishi Outlander, equipped with 2.4-liter engine, in a bid to take a bigger slice of the nation's fast-growing sports utility vehicle (SUV) market.
According to China Motors' figures, the monthly sales volume of SUVs in Taiwan doubled to 4,889 units last year compared with 2,427 in 2002 and is expected to grow to 6,171 units this year and 6,458 next year.
The Outlander, priced at between NT$969,000 and NT$999,000, is positioned to be a sports activity vehicle which combines characteristics of a sedan, sports car and SUV, and is targeted at young professionals who enjoy outdoor activities, Huang said.
China Motors, which has sold 84,979 vehicles from January to last month this year, would start delivering Outlanders to customers in January and hopes to market 1,200 units for the first year, Huang said.
However, China Motors faces sharp competition in the mid-sized SUV segment, where locally manufactured vehicles grabbed 94.4 percent of the market this year.
The Nissan X-Trail, which is manufactured by Yulon, led the segment with average monthly sales of 1,806 units, or a 36.2-percent market share, in the first 10 months of this year, followed by 1,361 units of the Ford Escape, distributed by Ford Lio Ho Motor Co (
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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