TMCnet News
Formosa Automobile to Assemble Skoda Cars in Taiwan in 2007(Taiwan Economic News Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)Taipei, Feb. 23, 2006 (CENS)--Taiwan's Formosa Automobile Corp. is expected to soon terminate its cooperation with GM Daewoo Auto & Technology Co. and move to begin local production of car models from another foreign technical partner Formosa Automobile president Chen Sheng-kung disclosed that his company is in intensive talks with Skoda, a leading car brand in Czech, and is scheduled to begin local assembly of the 1,400cc Fabia sub-compact model in 2007. The car model would carry Formosa's brand logos rather than Skoda's, Chen stressed Formosa Automobile has also begun local assembly of DAF heavy-duty trucks at its plant in central Taiwan's Taichung in January, Chen said. The company aims to sell 250 DAF trucks in Taiwan this year, for a 10% market share Chan claimed that Formosa Automobile projects to sell 3,500 Skoda cars in Taiwan this year, and has won orders for about 300 units. The company currently runs five operation points for Skoda car models, and plans to add four more points around the island by the end of the year. Formosa Automobile currently locally produces two car models developed by Daewoo, including the Magnus medium sedan and Matiz mini-car, but has been maintaining a very low-level partnership with the South Korean partner. As Daewoo has been acquired by GM of the U.S. and become part of the GM Daewoo, Chen said, Formosa Automobile will terminate its cooperation ties with the formerly South Korean car company In the initial stage, Chen pointed out, Formosa Automobile would be responsible for only local assembly of semi-knock-down (SKD) parts imported from Czech for the Skoda cars, rather than adopting some Taiwan-made auto parts. |