Following months of weak domestic sales amid slowing consumption, the nation’s auto industry saw a silver lining, with the latest government data showing that new car registrations — a measure of sales — grew 25.8 percent last month from a year ago.
Data released by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday showed that sales of new vehicles reached 26,150 units last month, up 43.5 percent from May.
It marked the first time this year that auto sales saw both a month-on-month and year-on-year expansion.
Steve Yang (楊湘泉), spokesman for Hotai Motor Co (和泰汽車), attributed the sales increase to extended summer promotion activities by dealers last month.
He said total sales might recover to 230,000 units this year after falling three years in a row.
Hotai Motor, an agent for locally assembled and imported Toyota and Lexus cars, led the market last month by selling 10,687 vehicles. It was followed by China Motor Co (中華汽車), which assembles and markes Mitsubishi vehicles, with 4,332 units, and Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車), which sold 2,877 Nissan cars.
Auto sales in the first half of the year dropped 9.3 percent to 120,001 units year-on-year, but the rate of contraction was smaller than the decline of 15.9 percent to 93,851 units in the first five months, government data showed.
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