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.
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