Shares of the nation’s biggest automaker, Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車), rallied nearly 7-percent — the daily limit — yesterday after the company received the go-ahead to make its Luxgen brand cars in China.
Shares of Yulon closed up 6.92 percent to NT$39.4 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Dongfeng Yulon (東風裕隆), a joint venture between Yulon and China’s No. 4 automaker Dongfeng Automobile Co (東風汽車), has received official approval from the Chinese authority to manufacture cars in the world’s biggest automotive market, the company said in a statement yesterday.
Yulon, which holds 50 percent of Dongfeng Yulon, planned to invest 755 million yuan (US$111.5 million) in the venture, which will have 1.55 billion yuan in initial capital.
This marks Yulon’s second car making venture in China.
Dongfeng Yulon will be located in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, the statement said.
Yulon’s shares have risen 4.5 percent since early this year and have jumped 20 percent in the past 12 months, outpacing other auto shares on the TAIEX, which are up 12 percent in the past year.
“This project will enhance the research and development capability of Taiwan’s auto industry and help push exports of Taiwan’s auto component makers,” the statement said.
The venture is set to produce 120,000 vehicles per year in the initial stage, with models ranging from sports utility vehicles, multi-purpose vehicles and sedans, the statement said, adding total investment would eventually hit 3.4 billion yuan.
Taiwan’s auto production currently stands at 280,000 units a year.
Dongfeng Yulon’s first-phase production facilities are expected to be ready by the end of next year, with both parties to jointly handle recruitment, equipment purchase, safety recognition and the sales network.
Yulon, which mainly produces cars for Nissan in Taiwan through a licensing agreement with its Japanese partner, has a previous joint venture in China called South East Motor (Fujian) (東南汽車).
While the statement did not specify the models to be produced by Dongfeng Yulon, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News said the venture would mainly manufacture Luxgen vehicles — Yulon’s first attempt at building its own brand.
The first Luxgen, a 2.2-liter minivan for family use, was unveiled in Taiwan in September last year. Since then Yulon has received orders from more than 10,000 local motorists, Luxgen said.
The Luxgen project has cost Yulon about NT$15 billion (US$472 million) since it started four years ago.
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
Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer specializing in artificial-intelligence (AI) chips, yesterday said that small-volume production of 3-nanometer (nm) chips for a key customer is on track to start by the end of this year, dismissing speculation about delays in producing advanced chips. As Alchip is transitioning from 7-nanometer and 5-nanometer process technology to 3 nanometers, investors and shareholders have been closely monitoring whether the company is navigating through such transition smoothly. “We are proceeding well in [building] this generation [of chips]. It appears to me that no revision will be required. We have achieved success in designing
RSS