General Motors (GM), Ford and Chrysler reported their best US sales performances since 2007 on Tuesday amid booming overall auto demand following the US industry’s near-collapse five years ago.
Total industry sales rose 3.4 percent from March last year and came in at a seasonally adjusted, annual pace of 15.3 percent, according to Autodata.
That’s down slightly from February, but means the industry has now racked up five consecutive months with a sales pace of more than 15 million vehicles.
Since sales vary significantly from month to month because of traditional shopping patterns, seasonal sales and product launch schedules, analysts focus on the seasonally adjusted sales pace.
“We’re not quite back to pre-recession levels, but the industry is getting closer to a full recovery every month,” Edmunds.com analyst Jessica Caldwell said. “As long as the auto industry continues this string of 15-plus million [sales pace] every month, there won’t be any shortage of optimism.”
GM said it posted its best March performance since 2007 “thanks to a strengthening economy and new products” as sales rose 6 percent to 245,950 vehicles.
Chrysler said its sales rose 5 percent to 171,606 vehicles last month despite limited inventory of some of its best-selling models, including Jeep and heavy-duty Ram trucks.
It was the company’s 36th consecutive month of gains in year-over-year sales, and the strongest sales for any month since December 2007.
Ford posted its best performance for any month since May 2007 as sales rose 6 percent to 236,160 vehicles last month.
Meanwhile, Toyota sales rose 1 percent to 205,342 units last month.
Honda sales rose 7 percent to 136,038 units while Nissan saw its sales rise by 1 percent to 137,726 vehicles.
South Korean automakers bucked the positive trend, with Kia down 15 percent at 49,125 and Hyundai down 2 percent at 68,303.
Volkswagen, which has been aggressively expanding in the US, marked its 31st consecutive month of gains and its strongest March in 40 years as sales rose 3 percent to 37,704 vehicles.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”