Auto sales in places like Brazil, India and China are expected to drive world demand to new records despite a sales slump in Europe and the US, a Canadian bank said on Wednesday.
Global car sales advanced a mere 1.5 percent in the first half of this year, undercut by slowing Western economies and record oil prices, Scotiabank said in its Global Auto Report.
But Brazil, Russia, India and China continue to post double-digit gains in automotive sales, it said.
BEATING THE ODDS
“Despite the year-over-year sales decline in recent months, we expect full-year 2008 volumes to climb to a seventh consecutive annual record, buoyed by ongoing strength in Brazil, Russia, China and India,” said Carlos Gomes, a Scotiabank senior economist and the report’s author.
“In fact, car sales in these nations are expected to surpass US passenger vehicle purchases in 2009,” he said.
The report said total car and truck sales volumes fell in both May and June, crippled by record oil prices averaging US$130 per barrel and weakness in the mature markets of Western Europe, Japan and the US.
In the US, sales of sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks plunged by nearly 30 percent compared to the same period last year.
PASSENGER VEHICLES
A further weakening of the US economy is also expected to slash full-year passenger vehicle sales to 14.1 million units this year and to 14.3 million units next year — “the worst back-to-back performance since 1993,” the report said.
Surging oil prices, however, had little impact in Brazil, which accounts for 60 percent of all South American sales.
Eighty-eight percent of vehicles sold in Brazil are flex-fuel models that can run on less expensive ethanol, manufactured from sugar cane. Its vehicle sales were up more than 24 percent in the first half of this year.
Vehicle sales in China moderated from an average annual increase of 30 percent this decade to a hike of 17 percent in the first half of the year, the report said.
CHINESE SUBSIDIES
China insulates domestic consumers from high oil prices by subsidizing fuel costs, but lifted fuel prices by nearly 10 percent in November and raised prices an additional 18 percent in June.
Western Europe saw a 3 percent decline in car sales because of slowing economic growth, but double-digit gains in Eastern Europe lifted total European sales to 4 percent during the first half of the year.
In Russia, which is considered separately, car sales were up 40 percent in the first half of the year to 1.45 million units.
The report said Russia was set to become the world’s fourth-largest car market next year, with annual volumes of 3.7 million units.
The navy has installed 13 Phalanx Block 1B close-in weapons systems on its warships, increasing their defensive firepower, a defense official said on Saturday. The systems cost the navy NT$10.16 billion (US$314.67 million), while eight additional Block 1A systems are being upgraded in the US and are expected to be delivered next year, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The Phalanx system used by Taiwan to defend its warships and key radar installations is a radar-cued gun system capable of firing 4,500 rounds a minute at targets as far away as 1.5km, the official said. With their superior range of
RACE FOR CHIPS: The Dresden site would help Europe reduce its reliance on Asia for semiconductors, while Germany aims to produce one-fifth of the world’s chips by 2030 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday broke ground in Dresden, Germany, on its first European plant as the continent seeks to safeguard its chip supplies amid growing US-China tensions. TSMC chief executive C.C. Wei (魏哲家) attended the event, together with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and the heads of Infineon Technologies AG, NXP Semiconductors NV and Robert Bosch GmbH, which each hold a 10 percent stake in the venture. TSMC owns a 70 percent stake in the plant. “Together with our partners, Bosch, Infineon and NXP, we are building our Dresden facility to meet the
‘CLOSE TIES’: Former Japanese PM Yoshihiko Noda also attended the annual Ketagalan Forum on Indo-Pacific security and spoke of Taiwan’s importance globally China’s authoritarian expansionism would not stop with Taiwan, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, calling for solidarity among the world’s democracies to check Beijing’s territorial ambitions. Taiwan is determined to become a decisive force for democracy, peace and prosperity, standing side-by-side with its democratic partners to confront authoritarian expansionism and protect shared values, he told the annual Ketagalan Forum on Indo-Pacific security in Taipei. Authoritarianism is now a global challenge, Lai said, using as examples Chinese military expansionism, economic coercion and the use of hybrid warfare tactics such as cyberattacks and cognitive warfare. “We are all fully aware that China’s growing authoritarianism will
RECOVERY: Overall, average income across all age groups increased, climbing to a record NT$709,000 last year, on the back of an improved economy, the DGBAS said Taiwanese workers under the age of 30 last year, on average, earned an annual income of NT$545,931 (US$17,044), a new high, as the economy continued to improve, data released by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) showed. That equated to monthly earnings of NT$45,494 per person, and marked an increase from NT$535,667 in 2022, the data showed. In addition to an improved economy, average incomes rose as the unemployment rate declined and the minimum wage rose, the statistics agency said. Overall, average income in Taiwan also hit a new record of NT$709,000 last year, up from NT$704,000 in 2022, the data