Yulon Nissan Motor Co (裕隆日產), which distributes Nissan and Infiniti vehicles in Taiwan, yesterday said it has set a profit target of NT$1.8 billion (US$59.4 million) for this year, compared with last year’s NT$1.2 billion, buoyed by a stronger New Taiwan dollar and better cost control.
“We expect car sales to reach 44,900 units this year, surpassing last year’s 42,000 units,” company president Leman Lee (李振成) said on the sidelines of a new car launch in Taipei.
Yulon Nissan was also upbeat about its China business, citing improved marketing strategies and growing demand for sport utility vehicles (SUV).
Photo: Yang Ya-min, Taipei Times
Car sales at the company’s Chinese subsidiary, Dongfeng Nissan Passenger Vehicle Co (東風日產), are forecast to hit 1.15 million units this year, compared with 1.12 million units a year earlier, the company said.
This year, the company plans to allocate nearly NT$2 billion in capital spending — virtually flat compared with last year — for the research and development of new models, it said.
To attract more customers, Yulon Nissan said it has put in place a three-year NT$1 billion plan to upgrade its Infiniti showrooms.
The company reported earnings per share of NT$15.44 for last year, up from NT$13.89 in 2015, on robust demand in Taiwan and China.
Last week, the company reported better-than-expected sales for the first quarter, securing its ranking as the third-biggest car seller in Taiwan.
It distributed 11,352 vehicles cars in the first quarter, up 3.2 percent from 10,997 units a year earlier, data compiled by local motor vehicle branches showed.
Revenue during the period rose 3.7 percent to NT$9.86 billion, according to a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
“We expect the growth momentum in operating profit to extend throughout this year,” Lee said.
Cumulative operating profit in the first quarter is expected to grow by a double-digit percentage from NT$382.6 million a year ago, supported by the NT dollar’s sharp appreciation against the Japanese yen, as well as increasing revenue contribution from its high-priced models, including compact crossover SUV X-Trail, he said.
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
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day