Hotai Motor Co (和泰汽車), the local sales agent of Toyota and Lexus vehicles, yesterday kept its vehicle sales target for this year unchanged on expectations that the robust sales from January to last month would offset a recent weakness amid rising COVID-19 infections.
The company still aims to sell 154,000 vehicles this year, up 5.48 percent from 146,000 units last year, it said in a presentation paper, after vehicle sales surged 118.3 percent year-on-year to 54,297 units during the first four months of this year.
That gave Hotai a market share of 34 percent in Taiwan.
Photo: Amy Yang, Taipei Times
After offering a revamped Toyota Sienna in March, the company plans to launch more new models in the second half of the year to spur growth, including the Gazoo Racing (GR) series from Toyota Motor Corp.
The GR Yaris would be available next quarter, while the GR 86 would hit the market in the fourth quarter, Hotai said.
The company also retained its forecast for new vehicle sales in Taiwan at 440,000 units for this year, down 3.72 percent from last year’s 457,000 units, because of a shortage of automotive chips and the effect of a COVID-19 outbreak.
If the number of cases could be curbed in two to three months, there could be a rebound in demand, the company said.
Rising vaccinations would also help, it said.
Hotai’s net profit soared 44 percent to NT$5 billion (US$179.71 million) in the first quarter, compared with NT$3.47 billion in the same period last year, company data showed.
Earnings per share jumped to NT$9.16 from NT$6.35 a year earlier.
Revenue expanded 15 percent to NT$56.1 billion, from NT$48.75 billion, during the same period.
US PROBE: The Information reported that the US Department of Commerce is investigating whether the firm made advanced chips for China’s Huawei Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract maker of advanced chips, yesterday said it is a law-abiding company, and is committed to complying with all applicable laws and regulations including export controls. The Hsinchu-based chip giant issued the statement after US news Web site The Information ran a story saying that the US Department of Commerce has launched a probe into TSMC over whether it breached export rules by making smartphone or artificial intelligence (AI) chips for China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為). “We maintain a robust and comprehensive export system for monitoring and ensuring compliance,” the statement said. “If we
DEMAND FOR AI CHIPS: Net income in the third quarter surged 31.2% quarter-on-quarter to NT$325.26 billion, the strongest quarterly return in the company’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, yesterday raised its revenue forecast to annual growth of 30 percent this year, thanks to strong and sustainable demand for artificial intelligence (AI) processors for servers. It was the second upward adjustment from 25 percent year-on-year growth estimated three months ago, despite recent concerns about whether the AI boom could be another technology bubble. “The demand is real. It’s real. And I believe it is just the beginning of this demand. Alright, so one of my key customers said the demand right now is ‘insane,’” TSMC chairman and chief executive C.C.
COUNTRY-BASED: Setting ceilings on sales of the technology would tighten limits that originally targeted China’s ambitions in artificial intelligence amid security risks US officials have discussed capping sales of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chips from Nvidia Corp and other American companies on a country-specific basis, people familiar with the matter said, a move that would limit some nations’ AI capabilities. The new approach would set a ceiling on export licenses for some countries in the interest of national security, according to the people, who described the private discussions on condition of anonymity. Officials in the administration of US President Joe Biden focused on Persian Gulf countries that have a growing appetite for AI data centers and the deep pockets to fund them, the people
Starbucks Corp might have the more recognizable name, but 7-Eleven’s City Cafe remains the king of Taiwan’s fresh coffee market, helped by the convenience store chain’s extensive market presence and product diversification. President Chain Store Corp (PCSC, 統一超商), which runs both the 7-Eleven and Starbucks store chains in Taiwan, established the City Cafe brand in 2004. The brand took off when actress Gwei Lun-mei (桂綸鎂) became its spokesperson in 2007. City Cafe’s sales exceeded NT$10 billion (US$311.69 million) for the first time in 2015, surpassing the revenue of Starbucks Taiwan, and rose to more than NT$17 billion last year, exceeding the NT$14.98