Guangzhou Automobile Group Co (GAC, 廣州汽車集團), a Chinese partner of Toyota Motor Corp and Honda Motor Co, was scheduled to introduce its own-brand Trumpchi car yesterday as the pace of sales growth slows for its Accord and Camry sedans.
Trumpchi is part of the automaker’s efforts “to build a first class brand,” vice chairman Zeng Qinghong (曾慶洪) said yesterday at an auto show in Guangzhou.
Guangzhou Auto, SAIC Motor Corp (上海汽車) and other Chinese automakers are speeding up development of their own models as they move from being low-cost assemblers of models developed by foreign partners. Chinese-brand passenger vehicles accounted for 45 percent of sales in the first 11 months of this year, compared with 44 percent a year earlier, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.
A hybrid version of Trumpchi will be available next year and an electric model in 2013, according to the company.
Toyota and Honda have lost market share in China as European and US rivals are able to buy components at lower prices by encouraging competition among suppliers, Zeng said. Japanese automakers prefer the stability of working with parts makers to which they have close ties, even if it means prices are higher, he said. Components make up 70 percent to 80 percent of costs, he said.
Toyota, the world’s biggest automaker, increased Camry sales 4 percent to 147,708 vehicles during the first 11 months of this year, according to researcher J.D. Power & Associates. Honda Accord sales fell 0.2 percent to 157,855 units, it said,
Guangzhou Auto, which made its trading debut in Hong Kong in August, may consider listing in China next year, Zeng said, without giving more details.
Shares in Guangzhou fell 1.7 percent to HK$10.31 as of 12:29pm in Hong Kong trading. The stock has risen 13 percent since the listing.
There may be more opportunities for acquisitions and cooperation with other automakers over the next five years, Zeng said.
Sales may rise 15 percent to 730,000 units this year, he said.
The Chinese automaker has a target of 3 million vehicles and 400 billion yuan (US$60 billion) in sales by 2015, Chairman Zhang Fangyou (張房有) said at the same event in Guangzhou.
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
RSS