The pace of growth in Taiwan’s auto sales might slow down this quarter due to a global shortage of chips used in the automative industry, despite robust sales performance last month, Capital Investment Management Corp (群益投顧) said.
The nation’s new car sales increased 12.47 percent month-on-month and 29.84 percent year-on-year to 51,179 units last month, auto information provider UCar.com said in a report on Monday last week, citing Directorate-General of Highways (DGH) data.
Capital Investment attributed the annual growth to seasonal factors, higher sales of Toyota Corolla Cross sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and consumers rushing to buy vehicles amid concerns of an auto shortage.
Photo: CNA
Thanks to sales of 6,195 Corolla Cross SUVs, Hotai Motor Co (和泰汽車), which distributes Toyota Motor Corp vehicles in Taiwan, sold 16,661 vehicles last month, up 34.2 percent from the previous year, giving it a 32.6 percent share of the market, UCar said.
Yulon Nissan Motor Co Ltd (裕隆日產) and Ford Lio Ho Motor Co (福特六和) made significant progress last month, with sales growing by double-digit percentage points from the previous year, while sales of imported vehicles increased 5 percent year-on-year to 20,846 units, maintaining a stable growth trend.
“However, due to the shortage of automotive chips and cars in the market, it is expected that Taiwan’s auto market will see growth taper off by the end of this quarter,” Capital Investment analyst David Lai (賴季宏) said in a note on Tuesday.
Total sales in the nation’s auto market last year rose 4 percent year-on-year to 457,435 vehicles, the highest in 15 years, DGH data showed.
Lai said the domestic auto market might face two issues in the first half of this year which would undermine auto sales before a recovery in the second half of this year due to strong demand.
“First, due to lower production by various automakers and higher demand of the international market, Taiwan’s quota of imported cars is indirectly capped,” he said.
“Second, the global shortage of automotive chips, which might not be eased until the second quarter of 2021, is expected to affect the production of Taiwan-made vehicles,” he added.
The Executive Yuan has proposed a new tax break to encourage consumers to replace old vehicles with new ones, subject to Legislative Yuan approval.
A previous reduction of NT$50,000 in commodity tax, which took effect in 2016, expired last month.
Lai said the new program would be similar to the previous program in terms of stimulating the market.
However, as some people had already purchased new vehicles last year, Taiwan’s auto market might weaken this year, he said, forecasting total vehicle sales to drop 2.63 percent from last year to about 445,000 units.
Semiconductor shares in China surged yesterday after Reuters reported the US had ordered chipmaking giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to halt shipments of advanced chips to Chinese customers, which investors believe could accelerate Beijing’s self-reliance efforts. TSMC yesterday started to suspend shipments of certain sophisticated chips to some Chinese clients after receiving a letter from the US Department of Commerce imposing export restrictions on those products, Reuters reported on Sunday, citing an unnamed source. The US imposed export restrictions on TSMC’s 7-nanometer or more advanced designs, Reuters reported. Investors figured that would encourage authorities to support China’s industry and bought shares
FLEXIBLE: Taiwan can develop its own ground station equipment, and has highly competitive manufacturers and suppliers with diversified production, the MOEA said The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) yesterday disputed reports that suppliers to US-based Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) had been asked to move production out of Taiwan. Reuters had reported on Tuesday last week that Elon Musk-owned SpaceX had asked their manufacturers to produce outside of Taiwan given geopolitical risks and that at least one Taiwanese supplier had been pushed to relocate production to Vietnam. SpaceX’s requests place a renewed focus on the contentious relationship Musk has had with Taiwan, especially after he said last year that Taiwan is an “integral part” of China, sparking sharp criticism from Taiwanese authorities. The ministry said
US President Joe Biden’s administration is racing to complete CHIPS and Science Act agreements with companies such as Intel Corp and Samsung Electronics Co, aiming to shore up one of its signature initiatives before US president-elect Donald Trump enters the White House. The US Department of Commerce has allocated more than 90 percent of the US$39 billion in grants under the act, a landmark law enacted in 2022 designed to rebuild the domestic chip industry. However, the agency has only announced one binding agreement so far. The next two months would prove critical for more than 20 companies still in the process
CHANGING JAPAN: Nvidia-powered AI services over cellular networks ‘will result in an artificial intelligence grid that runs across Japan,’ Nvidia’s Jensen Huang said Softbank Group Corp would be the first to build a supercomputer with chips using Nvidia Corp’s new Blackwell design, a demonstration of the Japanese company’s ambitions to catch up on artificial intelligence (AI). The group’s telecom unit, Softbank Corp, plans to build Japan’s most powerful AI supercomputer to support local services, it said. That computer would be based on Nvidia’s DGX B200 product, which combines computer processors with so-called AI accelerator chips. A follow-up effort will feature Grace Blackwell, a more advanced version, the company said. The announcement indicates that Softbank Group, which until early 2019 owned 4.9 percent of Nvidia, has secured a
RSS