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Vehicle sales fall on debt, strife

The nation's car sales for the first eight months of the year fell nearly 30 percent as concerns over consumer bad debts and political unrest continued to plague the market.

Statistics released by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications showed that total car sales from January to last month dipped 28 percent year-on-year to 261,233 units.

Ford Lio Ho Motor Co (福特六和), the nation's fourth-largest automaker, experienced the largest decline, with sales plunging 43 percent to 23,209 units during the period, the statistics showed.

Yulon Nissan Motor Co (裕隆日產), the third-largest automaker, did not fare much better with sales falling 40 percent to 28,675 units, according to the data.

Both Hotai Motor Co (和泰汽車) and China Motor Corp (中華汽車), the top two makers, reported milder sales falls of 30 percent to 73,997 units and 42,476 units, respectively.

Automakers said they expected full-year sales to reach 400,000 or even lower, a far cry from the more than 514,000 units sold last year, which were boosted by heavy promotions and growth in demand for recreational and utility vehicles.

"We don't see consumer confidence picking up before the end of the year as there are still a number of uncertainties weighing on sentiment," said Steven Yang (楊湘泉), spokesman for Hotai Motor.

The market has taken a beating amid continuing political conflict, high oil prices, rising commodity costs and consumer bad debts arising from credit and cash card abuse, he said.

Still, the company is betting on a slight pickup in this month's sales, as most automakers are gearing up to promote current or new models following stagnant sales last month, he said.

Sales last month -- the slowest month in the year due in part to the "Ghost Month" effect -- broke a 15-year record low by dipping to 17,513 units, or down 37 percent from the last year.

In view of the cloudy prospects, Hotai said it has set a sales target of around 125,000 cars this year, down from its original forecast of 150,000.

Yulon Nissan, which expects total domestic car sales to drop to 380,000 units this year, also trimmed its own sales target from 70,000 cars to 50,000.

After its board of directors' meeting last Monday, the company announced that it had revised downward its full-year sales target by 30 percent to NT$36.2 billion (US$1.1 billion) to reflect weak market momentum.

Second-half sales are not promising and may plunge by 25 percent to 30 percent, it said.
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