New vehicle sales in Taiwan tumbled about 12 percent sequentially last month in a warning that the proposed 32 percent tariffs by the US are weighing on local consumption and new vehicle demand, auto market researcher U-Car said yesterday.
Despite a 90-day reprieve, the levies are posing a risk to the nation’s economy, along with the global economy, leading to stock market routs and volatility in foreign exchange markets globally, the researcher said.
Under such an uncertain macroeconomic environment, new car sales were affected, it said.
Photo: CNA
Sales of new cars shrank 11.82 percent month-on-month to 32,876 units last month, compared with 37,281 units in March, government statistics showed.
That fell short of an estimate of 34,000 units by a major auto distributor.
On an annual basis, new car sales dipped 11.23 percent from 37,038 units sold in April last year, the data showed.
During the January-April period, new car sales dropped 11.2 percent annually to 132,733 units.
“The contraction in new car sales in April is rarely seen and serves as a warning. Sales usually start picking up in April amid increasing promotions by car dealers after new models hit the market,” U-Car said in a report.
“Consumers are taking a wait-and-see attitude about purchasing new cars, as Taiwan is under pressure to cut duties on imported vehicles and to scrap commodity taxes on imported cars to ease US concern over Taiwan’s high tariff barriers in the auto sector,” the research house said.
Taiwan slaps up to 52.5 percent duties on imported vehicles, including an import duty of 17.5 percent, a 25 percent to 30 percent commodity tax and a business tax of 5 percent, according to the Ministry of Finance.
New vehicle sales this month are expected to rebound slightly to 35,000 units, a local car distributor forecast.
However, on a year-on-year basis, it would mean a widening decline of 16 percent.
Last month, sales of Toyota and Lexus cars dropped 12.94 percent to a combined 12,463 units, compared with 12,463 units in March, according to statistics provided by Hotai Motor Co (和泰汽車), which distributes the Japanese brands.
That meant 2.8 percent annual growth, and gave Hotai a 37.9 percent local auto market share.
Tesla Inc registered sales of 163 cars last month, bringing the total annual sales as of last month to 2,799 units.
That placed the US electric car vendor in seventh place among imported brands.
Sales of the n7 from local electric car brand Luxgen Motor Co (納智捷汽車) surged 88.9 percent to 271 units last month. Since January, Luxgen has sold 1,391 units, the government data showed.
The Luxgen n7 is designed by Foxtron Vehicle Technologies Co (鴻華先進), a joint venture between Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車).
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has approved a capital budget of US$31.28 billion for production expansion to meet long-term development needs during the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. The company’s board meeting yesterday approved the capital appropriation plan for purposes such as the installation of advanced technology capacity and fab construction, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement. At an earnings conference last month, TSMC forecast that its capital expenditure for this year would be at the higher end of the US$52 billion to US$56 billion range it forecast in January in response to robust demand for 5G, AI and
RSS