Beldare Motors (標達國際汽車), the exclusive distributor of Volkswagen in Taiwan, yesterday confirmed that the German automaker was considering building a production line in Taiwan to manufacture 20,000 cars a year by 2015.
“This investment is part of Beldare’s plan to increase its market share to 15 percent of the local car market,” Beldare public relations manager Nelly Liao (廖英瑛) said by telephone.
Liao said Volkswagen has already captured 16 percent of China’s market and the company aims to become the world’s largest car manufacturer by 2018.
The company is also considering manufacturing cars in Taiwan to expand its domestic presence, Liao said.
Liao’s remark came after local media reported on Wednesday that Su Weiming (蘇偉銘), president of Volkswagen’s Greater China and Southeast Asian operations, talked about the company’s investment plan during a meeting with Minister Without Portfolio Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興), Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Woody Duh (杜紫軍) and Industrial Development Bureau Director-General Shen Jung-chin (沈榮津) earlier this month.
Su reportedly asked the government to provide preferential tariff treatment and assistance in acquiring land, with the company needing a 165,000m2 plot in the initial phase for the assembly of 50,000 cars per year.
Shen yesterday said the bureau would help Volkswagen if it decides to build a plant in Taiwan and asks for investment incentives.
“We welcome foreign firms to invest in Taiwan and will definitely provide as many incentives as we can offer to attract more firms to invest in the country and help create jobs,” Shen said by telephone.
Shen said the Cabinet’s Invest-in-Taiwan Service Center had helped many foreign companies invest in Taiwan by providing them with a relatively low corporate income tax rate meeting their land development requirements.
Liao said Volkswagen plans to produce the Sharan, a seven-seater multipurpose vehicle, and the Passat, a large family car, in Taiwan.
The company is likely to expand its capacity to produce 100,000 cars a year after 2015, if it receives a positive reaction from customers and acquires an additional 330,000m2 of land.
For the whole of last year, Beldare, the No. 7 car distributor in Taiwan, sold 13,596 Volkswagen vehicles, up 8.8 percent from 2011 and accounting for 3.7 percent of the total market of 365,871 cars, government data showed.
If Beldare could sell all 20,000 cars it produces locally in a year, its market share would increase to about 9 percent and it would become the fourth-largest car distributor in the nation.
The New Taipei City (新北市) government and several local governments in the south have welcomed Volkswagen’s planned investment, Liao said. However, the final decision will depend on the terms that the government offers, he said.
Volkswagen is still negotiating with the government on lower tariffs for auto parts imports, as well as rent, water and electricity rates, Liao said.
Additional reporting by Helen Ku
SEEKING CLARITY: Washington should not adopt measures that create uncertainties for ‘existing semiconductor investments,’ TSMC said referring to its US$165 billion in the US Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) told the US that any future tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors could reduce demand for chips and derail its pledge to increase its investment in Arizona. “New import restrictions could jeopardize current US leadership in the competitive technology industry and create uncertainties for many committed semiconductor capital projects in the US, including TSMC Arizona’s significant investment plan in Phoenix,” the chipmaker wrote in a letter to the US Department of Commerce. TSMC issued the warning in response to a solicitation for comments by the department on a possible tariff on semiconductor imports by US President Donald Trump’s
The government has launched a three-pronged strategy to attract local and international talent, aiming to position Taiwan as a new global hub following Nvidia Corp’s announcement that it has chosen Taipei as the site of its Taiwan headquarters. Nvidia cofounder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Monday last week announced during his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei that the Nvidia Constellation, the company’s planned Taiwan headquarters, would be located in the Beitou-Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區) in Taipei. Huang’s decision to establish a base in Taiwan is “primarily due to Taiwan’s talent pool and its strength in the semiconductor
An earnings report from semiconductor giant and artificial intelligence (AI) bellwether Nvidia Corp takes center stage for Wall Street this week, as stocks hit a speed bump of worries over US federal deficits driving up Treasury yields. US equities pulled back last week after a torrid rally, as investors turned their attention to tax and spending legislation poised to swell the US government’s US$36 trillion in debt. Long-dated US Treasury yields rose amid the fiscal worries, with the 30-year yield topping 5 percent and hitting its highest level since late 2023. Stocks were dealt another blow on Friday when US President Donald
UNCERTAINTY: Investors remain worried that trade negotiations with Washington could go poorly, given Trump’s inconsistency on tariffs in his second term, experts said The consumer confidence index this month fell for a ninth consecutive month to its lowest level in 13 months, as global trade uncertainties and tariff risks cloud Taiwan’s economic outlook, a survey released yesterday by National Central University found. The biggest decline came from the timing for stock investments, which plunged 11.82 points to 26.82, underscoring bleak investor confidence, it said. “Although the TAIEX reclaimed the 21,000-point mark after the US and China agreed to bury the hatchet for 90 days, investors remain worried that the situation would turn sour later,” said Dachrahn Wu (吳大任), director of the university’s Research Center for