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China Motor president to step down early next week

China Motor Corp (中華汽車), the nation's No. 2 automaker, announced over the weekend that its president, Huang Wen-cheng (黃文成), would retire next Monday after three-years at the company's helm.

Chairman Kenneth Yan (嚴凱泰) will replace Huang as president, the company said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Saturday.

But a ranking official at the company said Yan would only double as president during a transitional period.

The company, which assembles and distributes Mitsubishi vehicles in Taiwan, will appoint a new president within one year, the official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

Shares of China Motor rose NT$1.1 or 3.68 percent to close at NT$31 on Saturday. The stock has declined 3.43 percent so far this year.

China Motor praised Huang's steadying influence over the last three years as the company, along with other local automakers, experienced sluggish vehicle sales and weakened profitability.

In August, the company sold 2,887 new vehicles, up 32.8 percent year-on-year, the latest statistics compiled by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications showed.

In the first eight months of the year, the company sold 32,705 new vehicles to claim a market share of 14.3 percent, trailing only market leader Hotai Motor Co (和泰汽車).

Hotai, the nation's largest automobile vendor and a distributor of Toyota and Lexus cars, sold 74,348 cars in the first eight months for a share of 32.6 percent.

However, the domestic market has continued to slump, evidenced by the 12.6 percent drop in vehicle sales during the first eight months to 228,400 units from a year earlier, government data showed.

While automakers estimated this year's sales figure could reach 320,000 units driven by new models including China Motor's Lancer Fortis sedans, the short-term to medium-term prospects for the market remain bleak as auto financiers have tightened loans to cope with the slower-than-expected recovery of consumer credit conditions.

The amount of auto loans reached NT$99.45 billion in August, a decline of 2.61 percent from July and a plunge of 20.43 percent from a year earlier, the central bank's latest data showed on Friday.

Huang will will continue serving as a board member at China Motor. Drawing on his years of experience in the automobile business, Huang will also take a new position as vice executive officer at the Yulon Group, where he will be in charge of investment and new business development, the company said.

In addition, Huang is also likely to take the helm at Tokio Marine Newa Insurance Co (新安東京海上產險), an automobile and property insurance unit of Yulon Group.

Yan is the chairman of the insurance unit at present. He also serves as the chairman of Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車), which assembles and sells cars for Japan's Nissan Motor Co.
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