Ford Lio Ho Motor Co (福特六和), a Taiwanese subsidiary of the US-based Ford Motor Co, said yesterday it will roll out its 2 millionth car in the local market next week after 38 years in the country.
Ford Motor Group vice president and president for Asia-Pacific and Africa Joe Hinrichs, Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen--shiang (施顏祥) and Industrial Development Bureau Director-General Woody Duh (杜紫軍), will attend the ceremony to unveil the new car.
Ford Lio Ho, a 70 percent-owned subsidiary of the US car maker, is a joint venture with the Lio Ho Group. It was set up in 1972, and has become one of Ford Motor’s important overseas production bases, according to the local company.
The company said this year has special meaning for Ford Motor, as the number of cars it has produced in Taiwan will reach the 2 million mark, symbolizing the strong sales the automaker has generated locally.
In the first 10 months of this year, sales posted by Ford Lio Ho, which owns the Ford and Mazda brands in Taiwan, rose 29 percent from a year earlier, while sales of the Ford brand alone grew 20.1 percent year-on-year.
Last month, Ford Lio Ho accounted for 11 percent of the Taiwanese auto market, compared with 11.1 percent recorded a year earlier.
The Taiwanese unit said its 2 millionth car is a new Mondeo passenger model equipped with Ford Motor’s energy-efficient EcoBoost engine, which is being introduced into the Taiwanese market for the first time.
According to the company, the EcoBoost engine technology, which Ford Motor unveiled at the North American International Auto Show in 2008, delivers up to 20 percent better fuel economy and cuts carbon dioxide emissions by 15 percent.
Ford Lio Ho said more than 80 percent of its cars will be equipped with EcoBoost engines by 2013.
Meanwhile, Ford Motor is opening dozens of new dealerships in China as it expands its reach into provincial cities, courting new car buyers.
The automaker yesterday inaugurated 40 new dealerships out of 66 it will open before the end of the year in China. This year it plans to open a total of 100 dealerships there, raising the total number of outlets to 340.
China’s car market is the world’s biggest and sales are growing fastest in provincial cities where millions of new and potential car buyers live.
Ford is forecasting record sales for this year, though it got a later start and has a smaller presence in China than rival General Motors Co.
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
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
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