Yulon Nissan Profits From Japanese Makers' Over-capacity

Taipei, Jan. 21, 2009 (CENS)--Yulon Nissan Motor Co., the sales arm of locally made and imported Nissans and Infinitis, recently adjusted its sales strategy to refocus on moving imports.

Industry sources pointed out that the sharp appreciation of Japanese Yen against the greenback has further burdened costs for all major automakers in Taiwan, which have to import key parts from their Japanese technical partners. To cope, local automakers may be forced to hike prices, which may not help sales and margins amid the slow domestic market.

Luckily some Japanese carmakers have cut prices to export to Taiwan in 2008 due to excessive capacity, greatly helping their Taiwan partners in both sales volume and profit margins. A good example is Hotai Motor that sold the imported Toyota RAV4 sport utility vehicle (SUV) for about the same price as a locally assembled product, which helped the dealer to outperform all local counterparts in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Yulon Nissan and its affiliate China Motor Corp. (CMC), the local maker and dealer of Mitsubishis, also decided to follow Hotai's model in a 22-year-low market.

Yulon Nissan claimed that it has been authorized by Nissan Japan to import the Nissan Rogue four-wheel-drive (4WD) crossover into Taiwan at about the same price, for the entry-level, as a locally-assembled counterpart.

Wu Hsin-fa, president of Yulon Nissan, said has had been aggressively trying to win Nissan's promise not to hike Rogue prices in 2009 for better margins.