New car sales last month grew for a third consecutive month and expanded 5.7 percent from October to 36,485 units as consumers regained interest thanks to tax incentives unveiled in September and eased concerns over US tariffs, market researcher U-Car said in a report on Monday.
On an annual basis, sales were still in a downward spiral, dipping 6.8 percent, the data showed.
Total sales in the first 11 months of this year were 367,133 units, 11.8 percent lower compared with the same period last year.
Photo courtesy of Taiwan International Ports Corp
Overall, the improvement indicates a gradual revival of sentiment in the market, the U-Car report said.
“For the full year, it would require a miracle to see sales catch up with last year’s level,” it said.
The nation’s car sales have been weak since April following US President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariff announcement, as car buyers took to the sidelines waiting for the results of Taiwan-US trade talks over the tariffs issue.
U-Car said the nation’s new car sales this year would be down at least 10 percent from last year’s 457,000 units.
Yulon Nissan Motor Co (裕隆日產) last month forecast sales of 400,000 units for this year, down from its previous estimate of 450,000 units.
Hotai Motor Co (和泰汽車), which distributes Toyota and Lexus cars in Taiwan, sold 13,933 units last month, up 9.4 percent from October. That gave it a 38.2 percent market share, defending its top ranking.
On an annual basis, the company’s car sales were down 1.5 percent, almost paring losses made in previous months.
Hotai expects the nation’s new car sales this month to grow about 4 percent year-on-year to 43,000 units, the strongest performance this year, as automakers and dealers are launching promotion programs and new models to stimulate sales during the peak season.
However, the company trimmed its total sales target for this year to about 165,000 units from 170,000 units estimated at the beginning of this year, attributable to insufficient supply.
It also reduced its market share goal to about 35 percent from 37.8 percent.
Taiwan’s exports soared 56 percent year-on-year to an all-time high of US$64.05 billion last month, propelled by surging global demand for artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing and cloud service infrastructure, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) called the figure an unexpected upside surprise, citing a wave of technology orders from overseas customers alongside the usual year-end shopping season for technology products. Growth is likely to remain strong this month, she said, projecting a 40 percent to 45 percent expansion on an annual basis. The outperformance could prompt the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and
The demise of the coal industry left the US’ Appalachian region in tatters, with lost jobs, spoiled water and countless kilometers of abandoned underground mines. Now entrepreneurs are eyeing the rural region with ambitious visions to rebuild its economy by converting old mines into solar power systems and data centers that could help fuel the increasing power demands of the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. One such project is underway by a non-profit team calling itself Energy DELTA (Discovery, Education, Learning and Technology Accelerator) Lab, which is looking to develop energy sources on about 26,305 hectares of old coal land in
Netflix on Friday faced fierce criticism over its blockbuster deal to acquire Warner Bros Discovery. The streaming giant is already viewed as a pariah in some Hollywood circles, largely due to its reluctance to release content in theaters and its disruption of traditional industry practices. As Netflix emerged as the likely winning bidder for Warner Bros — the studio behind Casablanca, the Harry Potter movies and Friends — Hollywood’s elite launched an aggressive campaign against the acquisition. Titanic director James Cameron called the buyout a “disaster,” while a group of prominent producers are lobbying US Congress to oppose the deal,
Two Chinese chipmakers are attracting strong retail investor demand, buoyed by industry peer Moore Threads Technology Co’s (摩爾線程) stellar debut. The retail portion of MetaX Integrated Circuits (Shanghai) Co’s (上海沐曦) upcoming initial public offering (IPO) was 2,986 times oversubscribed on Friday, according to a filing. Meanwhile, Beijing Onmicro Electronics Co (北京昂瑞微), which makes radio frequency chips, was 2,899 times oversubscribed on Friday, its filing showed. The bids coincided with Moore Threads’ trading debut, which surged 425 percent on Friday after raising 8 billion yuan (US$1.13 billion) on bets that the company could emerge as a viable local competitor to Nvidia
RSS