Pan German Universal Motors Ltd (汎德永業), which sells BMW AG’s cars in Taiwan, on Thursday said that imported vehicles might contribute nearly half of the nation’s new cars sales next year, given the strong local currency.
The appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar makes imported products more affordable for customers, Pan German Universal Group (汎德永業集團) chairman James Tang (唐榮椿) said.
“There is still uncertainty in the nation’s car market, but imported cars are likely to achieve a larger share next year,” he said after a news conference for the upcoming Taipei International Auto Show.
From January through last month, the nation’s imported car sales totaled 166,951 units, a 8.95 percent increase from 153,230 units during the period last year, outpacing the overall market’s 1.2 percent growth, industry statistics showed.
The imported car sector accounted for 41.5 percent of the nation’s new car sales in the first 11 months, up from 38.5 percent year-on-year, the data showed.
Apart from a narrowing price gap between imported cars and locally made vehicles, industry figures show that Taiwanese have become more aware of car safety, local media reported.
Asked about Pan German’s plans for the coming year, Tang said the company would debut on the main board in the second half of next year at the earliest.
The company in October started trading on the Taipei Exchange’s Emerging Stock Board. According to regulations, the stock must be listed on the emerging board for six months or longer before moving to the Taiwan Stock Exchange, he said.
The founding Tang family, which also runs a car distribution business in China, owns more than 80 percent of Pan German.
The auto show is scheduled to begin on Saturday and is to run until Jan. 7 at Taipei’s Nangang Exhibition Center.
The show, which is to feature more than 350 new car models from 41 foreign brands, is expected to attract 300,000 visitors over nine days, Taipei Automobile Distributors Association chairman Eric Yu (游浩乙) said.
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
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six