Used-car prices soar; Toyota Motor supplier Denso hit by ransomware attack

Prices of used cars in the global market have soared as global semiconductor shortage has impacted the production of new cars thus increasing the demand for used vehicles.

The limited supply and increasing demand of used cars popularly nicknamed ‘Tokunbo’ in Nigeria have sent prices for previously-owned cars soaring in global auto markets.

Analysts say there are not enough used vehicles to meet demand which explains the up in price. Many owners are not currently looking to sell their cars, and used vehicles are also being exported to countries where Japanese models like Toyota are in high demand.

Leading Japanese used-car auction company USS says the average price for second-hand vehicles it offered in February was just over 1 million yen, or about 8,500 dollars, which is now up 20 percent in yen from a year earlier.

It is the first time the company’s average final auction price topped 1 million yen since 2000 when statistics were made available.

The report has it that buyers in Japan as in other places have been opting for used cars instead of waiting up to six months for new ones.

In addition to the low production of new Japanese auto brands, a group of hackers says it has stolen classified data from major Japanese auto parts maker Denso and is demanding a ransom.

Information security firm Mitsui Bussan Secure Directions told NHK that a group called Pandora posted a message on the dark web on Sunday saying that it had stolen more than 157,000 items.

The group says the 1.4 terabytes of data belonging to the Toyota Motor group firm includes purchase orders, emails, and drawings.

Pandora is believed to carry out cyber-attacks to encrypt data and demand money in return for decryption. It also threatens to release data if the demand is not met.

Denso told NHK that it had confirmed unauthorized access to the network of its business base in Germany and is looking into whether the access would affect operations.

Earlier in February, Toyota had to suspend operations at all its plants in Japan after one of its suppliers was hit by a cyber-attack.