New car sales rose 6.9 percent to 38,284 units last month from October, due to new model launches and the industry’s traditional high season.
Last month’s figures increased 9.8 percent from a year earlier, data compiled by local motor vehicle branches showed.
From January through last month, total new car sales reached 397,744 units in Taiwan, up 5 percent from the same period last year, the data showed.
Hotai Motor Co (和泰汽車), which maintained its position as the nation’s top seller last month, posted sales of 12,067 units, up 3.7 percent from the previous month.
Toyota and Lexus dealers held a 31.5 percent market share last month, supported by Toyota’s new Sienta.
The car is similar to the Wish multi-utility vehicle, which was phased out in June.
Hotai has sold 398 Sientas since its debut on Thursday last week, local media reported.
Yulon Nissan Motor Co (裕隆日產), which distributes Nissan and Infiniti vehicles, saw sales rise 6.3 percent monthly to 3,790 vehicles.
Yulon was the second-largest dealer last month with a market share of 9.9 percent.
China Motor Corp (中華汽車), which sells Mitsubishi sedans and its own CMC commercial models, saw sales fall 1.3 percent to 3,519 units last month, with a market share of 9.2 percent.
Mercedes-Benz Taiwan, the largest luxury car distributor in the nation, reported sales of 2,036 vehicles last month, down 1.9 percent from the previous month.
Car dealers generally gave positive sales outlooks for this month, saying that sales are likely to increase before the Lunar New Year holiday. The fourth quarter is usually seen as a high season for car dealers, as consumers tend to purchase cars ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, which is from Jan. 27 to Feb. 1, next year.
Hotai expects its car sales to reach 13,000 units this month, indicating nearly 7 percent growth from the previous month, a company official said by telephone yesterday.
As for the company’s annual target, Hotai said it expects to sell 135,000 units this year, compared with last year’s 132,400 units.
Yulon said it forecast Luxgen sales will reach 16,000 vehicles in Taiwan this year from last year’s 15,176 units.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
PRESSURE EXPECTED: The appreciation of the NT dollar reflected expectations that Washington would press Taiwan to boost its currency against the US dollar, dealers said Taiwan’s export-oriented semiconductor and auto part manufacturers are expecting their margins to be affected by large foreign exchange losses as the New Taiwan dollar continued to appreciate sharply against the US dollar yesterday. Among major semiconductor manufacturers, ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光), the world’s largest integrated circuit (IC) packaging and testing services provider, said that whenever the NT dollar rises NT$1 against the greenback, its gross margin is cut by about 1.5 percent. The NT dollar traded as strong as NT$29.59 per US dollar before trimming gains to close NT$0.919, or 2.96 percent, higher at NT$30.145 yesterday in Taipei trading
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