Automaker Yulon Motor Co (裕隆) yesterday kept its forecast for domestic new vehicle sales this year at 436,000 units, saying that Shanghai’s reopening would boost production and component supplies.
The forecast is 0.5 percent higher than last year’s domestic sales of 434,000 units.
Sales in the first four months of the year plummeted 12.5 percent to 136,000 units from a year earlier, due to shortages of chips and key components, as well as logistic bottlenecks, Yulon vice president Lee Chien-hui (李建輝) said.
Photo: Amy Yang, Taipei Times
The 50-day lockdown in Shanghai has dealt a serious blow to global auto component supply chains, as the city is one of the world’s biggest manufacturing hubs of key components, Lee said.
Yulon is stepping up efforts to acquire more key components as production and logistics gradually return to normal, he said.
“We will closely monitor how consumers react to interest rate hikes, inflationary pressure and spike in COVID-19 infections. We will adjust [our forecast] accordingly,” Lee said.
Local automakers and distributors such as Hotai Motor Co (和泰) have accumulated sizeable order backlogs and people must wait at least a year for delivery.
Yulon reported that net profit in the first quarter surged 53 percent year-on-year to NT$2.07 billion (US$69.67 million) from NT$1.36 billion a year earlier, thanks to a substantial increase in investment gains. Investments rose 92 percent to NT$1.18 billion from NT$616 million a year earlier.
Gross margin improved to 34 percent from 29 percent a year earlier, company data showed.
Taiwan Acceptance Corp (裕融企業), an auto financing unit 45 percent owned by Yulon, helped boost Yulon’s performance, Lee said.
Revenue in the first quarter fell 7 percent to NT$19.04 billion from NT$20.27 billion a year earlier, due to a decline in vehicle sales at Yulon Nissan Motor Co Ltd (裕隆日產), which distributes Nissan Motor Co and Infiniti vehicles.
Yulon Nissan, which is 50 percent owned by Yulon, yesterday reported that net profit in the first quarter fell 0.1 percent to NT$808.5 million from NT$809.18 million a year earlier, while earnings per share were flat at NT$2.7.
Revenue fell 17 percent to NT$7.76 billion from NT$7.9 billion a year earlier due to a decline in new vehicle sales following shortages of key components.
Three experts in the high technology industry have said that US President Donald Trump’s pledge to impose higher tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors is part of an effort to force Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to the negotiating table. In a speech to Republicans on Jan. 27, Trump said he intends to impose tariffs on Taiwan to bring chip production to the US. “The incentive is going to be they’re not going to want to pay a 25, 50 or even a 100 percent tax,” he said. Darson Chiu (邱達生), an economics professor at Taichung-based Tunghai University and director-general of
‘LEGACY CHIPS’: Chinese companies have dramatically increased mature chip production capacity, but the West’s drive for secure supply chains offers a lifeline for Taiwan When Powerchip Technology Corp (力晶科技) entered a deal with the eastern Chinese city of Hefei in 2015 to set up a new chip foundry, it hoped the move would help provide better access to the promising Chinese market. However, nine years later, that Chinese foundry, Nexchip Semiconductor Corp (合晶集成), has become one of its biggest rivals in the legacy chip space, leveraging steep discounts after Beijing’s localization call forced Powerchip to give up the once-lucrative business making integrated circuits for Chinese flat panels. Nexchip is among Chinese foundries quickly winning market share in the crucial US$56.3 billion industry of so-called legacy
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday held its first board of directors meeting in the US, at which it did not unveil any new US investments despite mounting tariff threats from US President Donald Trump. Trump has threatened to impose 100 percent tariffs on Taiwan-made chips, prompting market speculation that TSMC might consider boosting its chip capacity in the US or ramping up production of advanced chips such as those using a 2-nanometer technology process at its Arizona fabs ahead of schedule. Speculation also swirled that the chipmaker might consider building its own advanced packaging capacity in the US as part
Zhang Yazhou was sitting in the passenger seat of her Tesla Model 3 when she said she heard her father’s panicked voice: The brakes do not work. Approaching a red light, her father swerved around two cars before plowing into a sport utility vehicle and a sedan, and crashing into a large concrete barrier. Stunned, Zhang gazed at the deflating airbag in front of her. She could never have imagined what was to come: Tesla Inc sued her for defamation for complaining publicly about the vehicles brakes — and won. A Chinese court ordered Zhang to pay more than US$23,000 in