After hitting a bump on the road last year, the local automotive market is expected to recover slightly this year, industry watchers said yesterday.
"The auto market will see an improvement from last year, but the upside will not be huge," said Sam Wu (
Wu said that the negative factors which dragged car sales to the bottom last year would no longer be in effect this year.
For instance, there will only be one Ghost Month, instead of the two we had last year, which affected sales of big-ticket items, he said.
Consumer confidence
The impact of the credit and cash card debts, which plagued the nation last year, would also gradually fade this year, allowing consumer confidence and spending to rise, Wu said.
Figures released by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday showed that local car sales plunged 29 percent to 366,311 units last year.
Ford Lio Ho Motor Co (福特六和), the nation's fourth-biggest automaker, was the hardest hit, posting a 45 percent decline to 30,212 units during the period.
Sales of Yulon Nissan Motor Co (
The top two makers -- Hotai Motor Co (和泰汽車) and China Motor Corp (中華汽車) -- reported declines of 28 percent and 35 percent, to 107,462 units and 55,894 units, respectively, the data showed.
Soft pick-up
Wu said that the market this year should pick up 6.5 percent and exceed 390,000 units, a figure echoed by other car makers.
Steven Yang (
Smaller rivals Yulon Nissan is aiming for a 15 percent increase in auto sales, while China Motor is targeting a 10 percent rise in vehicle sales.
Given a limited domestic market, automakers are expected to speed up their pace in deployment across the Strait, as well as in exporting cars to overseas markets,Wu said.
Tough competition
"It is a must for automakers to move into China's rapidly growing market. But there are just too many brands and too many new car launches there, which will eat into local makers' profitability," he said.
Ventures of Taiwanese firms in China would only see better profitability after the industry undergoes consolidation, the analyst said.
Meanwhile, China Motor announced on Monday that Chinese authorities had approved the establishment of its second joint venture across the strait, known as DaimlerChrysler Vans (China) Ltd (DCVC).
With a planned investment of 200 million euros (US$260 million), DCVC will focus on supplying Vito/Viano luxury multi-purpose vehicles and Sprinter commercial trucks.
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
With an approval rating of just two percent, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte might be the world’s most unpopular leader, according to pollsters. Protests greeted her rise to power 29 months ago, and have marked her entire term — joined by assorted scandals, investigations, controversies and a surge in gang violence. The 63-year-old is the target of a dozen probes, including for her alleged failure to declare gifts of luxury jewels and watches, a scandal inevitably dubbed “Rolexgate.” She is also under the microscope for a two-week undeclared absence for nose surgery — which she insists was medical, not cosmetic — and is
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
CHIP DUTIES: TSMC said it voiced its concerns to Washington about tariffs, telling the US commerce department that it wants ‘fair treatment’ to protect its competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reiterated robust business prospects for this year as strong artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from Nvidia Corp and other customers would absorb the impacts of US tariffs. “The impact of tariffs would be indirect, as the custom tax is the importers’ responsibility, not the exporters,” TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at the chipmaker’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Hsinchu City. TSMC’s business could be affected if people become reluctant to buy electronics due to inflated prices, Wei said. In addition, the chipmaker has voiced its concern to the US Department of Commerce
RSS