US auto giant General Motors (GM), battling to bolster sales at home after emerging from bankruptcy, on Wednesday predicted its sales in China this year would rise by more than 40 percent year-on-year.
The prediction came as GM and its Chinese partners said sales last month soared 112.7 percent year-on-year to 152,365 units — the latest in a series of single-month records stretching back to January.
“We are now looking at [an overall China] market of 11.5 [million] to 12 million vehicles, up from 9.1 million units last year,” GM China Group president and managing director Kevin Wale said in a statement. “We expect GM sales for the year as a whole to rise by more than 40 percent from 2008.”
Sales in China for the first eight months of this year hit 1,111,401 units, a 49.6 percent increase over the same period last year, GM said.
At the same time in the US, GM’s biggest market, sales last month dropped 20 percent and year-to-date sales fell 35 percent to 1.4 million vehicles.
Demand for its Buick and Chevrolet models helped Shanghai GM, a joint venture with the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation, post an all-time monthly sales record of more than 63,300 units last month, the company said.
Buick, a struggling brand elsewhere that is popular among China’s middle class, saw sales rise 102.8 percent year-on-year last month with more than 38,900 units sold, the company said.
Meanwhile, Chevrolet sales in China hit an all-time monthly high of more than 23,770 vehicles sold, up 99.4 percent year-on-year, GM said.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
PRESSURE EXPECTED: The appreciation of the NT dollar reflected expectations that Washington would press Taiwan to boost its currency against the US dollar, dealers said Taiwan’s export-oriented semiconductor and auto part manufacturers are expecting their margins to be affected by large foreign exchange losses as the New Taiwan dollar continued to appreciate sharply against the US dollar yesterday. Among major semiconductor manufacturers, ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光), the world’s largest integrated circuit (IC) packaging and testing services provider, said that whenever the NT dollar rises NT$1 against the greenback, its gross margin is cut by about 1.5 percent. The NT dollar traded as strong as NT$29.59 per US dollar before trimming gains to close NT$0.919, or 2.96 percent, higher at NT$30.145 yesterday in Taipei trading
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