New vehicle sales in Taiwan shrank 14.4 percent year-on-year in the first half of this year, not boding well for the market to return to positive growth this year amid the uncertainty of US tariffs, government data showed yesterday.
Cumulative sales in the first six months were 198,867 units, after sales last month registered a 17.5 percent decline to 34,320 units, the data showed.
Last month’s figure rose 7.6 percent from 31,910 units in May.
Photo courtesy of a reader
Sales in the first half came in at less than half of last year’s sales of 449,000 units, indicating that the prospects “are not optimistic,” market researcher U-car.com said in a report.
“Sales in recent months showed the annual declines continued to worsen,” it said.
Hotai Motor Co (和泰汽車), the nation’s top car distributor, in May forecast that new car sales in Taiwan would reach 450,000 units this year. The firm distributes Toyota and Lexus cars.
“Taiwan’s car market is overshadowed by strong wait-and-see sentiment ahead of the results of Taiwan-US trade talks over the tariffs issue,” U-car said. “Consumers are still hoping for cuts in tariffs on imported cars or commodity taxes, leading to a delay in new orders or car deliveries.”
Market sentiment might be clearer following the end of US President Donald Trump’s 90-day reprieve of the “reciprocal” tariffs on Wednesday next week, the researcher said.
With the absence of the tariff uncertainty, sales this month are expected to rebound significantly to 450,000 units, thanks to summer sales promotions, some automakers estimated.
Hotai sold 11,458 cars last month, down 7 percent from June last year, with a market share of 33.4 percent, the data showed.
China Motor Corp (中華汽車) came next with sales of 2,136 units and a 6.2 percent market share, while Mercedes-Benz AG ranked third with sales of 1,840 units.
Tesla Inc saw its ranking jump to No. 5 after selling 1,693 cars last month. The US electric vehicle maker was not among the top 10 best sellers in May.
UNPRECEDENTED PACE: Micron Technology has announced plans to expand manufacturing capabilities with the acquisition of a new chip plant in Miaoli Micron Technology Inc unveiled a newly acquired chip plant in Miaoli County yesterday, as the company expands capacity to meet growing demand for advanced DRAM chips, including high-bandwidth memory chips amid the artificial intelligence boom. The plant in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), which Micron acquired from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion, is expected to make a sizeable capacity contribution to the company from fiscal 2028, the company said in a statement. It would be an extended production site of Micron’s large-scale manufacturing hub in Taichung, the company said. As the global semiconductor industry is racing to reach US$1 trillion
Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab Holdings Ltd has applied for regulatory approval to acquire the Taiwan operations of Germany-based Delivery Hero SE's Foodpanda in a deal valued at about US$600 million. Grab submitted the filing to the Fair Trade Commission on Friday last week, with the transaction subject to regulatory review and approval, the company said in a statement yesterday. Its independent governance structure would help foster a healthy and competitive market in Taiwan if the deal is approved, Grab said. Grab, which is listed on the NASDAQ, said in the filing that US-based Uber Technologies Inc holds about 13 percent of
Taiwan’s food delivery market could undergo a major shift if Singapore-based Grab Holdings Ltd completes its planned acquisition of Delivery Hero SE’s Foodpanda business in Taiwan, industry experts said. Grab on Monday last week announced it would acquire Foodpanda’s Taiwan operations for US$600 million. The deal is expected to be finalized in the second half of this year, with Grab aiming to complete user migration to its platform by the first half of next year. A duopoly between Uber Eats and Foodpanda dominates Taiwan’s delivery market, a structure that has remained intact since the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) blocked Uber Technologies Inc’s
Memory chip stocks extended their losses yesterday after Alphabet Inc’s Google publicized research that could allow more efficient use of the storage needed for artificial intelligence (AI) development. SK Hynix Inc and Samsung Electronics Co, South Korean leaders in the market, fell more than 6 percent and about 5 percent respectively in Seoul. In the US, Micron Technology Inc, Western Digital Corp and Sandisk Corp slid more than 2 percent in pre-market trading, after they all closed lower on Wednesday. Memory companies have been on a tear in recent months as the rapid development of AI infrastructure triggered a spike in chip
RSS