"We don't expect to see an upturn in China's auto market until after the second half of this year at the earliest," as those factors are expected to linger this year, Wu said.
The automakers all forecast that the number of locally made vehicles applying for license plates, an indicator of new vehicle sales, may remain flat at around 480,000 units this year.
New car registrations reached 484,200 units last year, up 17.03 percent from 413,741 units in 2003, according to statistics compiled by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications. The figures were 398,877 units in 2002 and 347,423 units in 2001.
While the number of new car registrations has jumped 39.37 percent since 2001, when the nation's economy contracted by 2.18 percent, analysts forecast flat growth for this year, attributable in part to the lackluster economies both at home and abroad, dragged down by rising crude oil prices, the US' dwindling economic growth and China's cooling-off measures.
With the launch of new minivans and enhanced lineups, Hotai Motor continued to be the No. 1 vendor in Taiwan last year, selling a total of 133,727 vehi-cles, according to the ministry's statistics.
The runner-up was China Motors Corp (
Hotai expected to market up to 140,000 vehicles this year, while China Motors targeted 90,000 units. Yulon Nissan and Ford Lio Ho projected sales volume of 70,000 units and 66,000 units, respectively.
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