Taiwan-assembled Mitsubishi Lancer Fortis Rolls into Kuwait

Taipei, Sept. 6, 2012 (CENS)--The first batch of Taiwan-assembled Mitsubishi Lancer Fortis sedans will be sold in Kuwait this month, with the contract assembler China Motor Corp. (CMC) expected to export over 1,000 units to that Middle East market this year.

T.H. Liu, CMC president, pointed out that the Japanese technical partner Mitsubishi Motors has ordered 2,400 Fortis to be shipped to the Middle East per year, with the volume to expected to grow rapidly based on the high potential of the target market.

Seemingly emulating CMC, Kuozui Motors Ltd., assembler of Toyotas in Taiwan, aims to ship some 60,000 Toyotas to the Middle East this year via its parent’s global sales channels.

Industry sources say that about 1.2 million new cars are sold in the Middle East per year, including about 110,000 C-class compact sedans.

The CMC-redesigned Lancer Fortis is expected to drive Mitsubishi's sales in the Middle East, with the Taiwanese contractor also planning to introduce self-developed models to the Middle East under its CMC logo.

Industry insiders say that sharply appreciating Japanese yen has raised export cost of Japanese automakers, who are outsourcing to Taiwanese technical partners to offset higher cost, with the added benefit being upgrading contractors’ quality and utilization rates.