The nation's energy consumption rose for a fifth month in September because of increased demand from electronics companies.
Energy use increased 1.9 percent from a year earlier to the equivalent of 9.52 million kiloliters (59.9 million barrels) of oil in September, the Bureau of Energy said on its Web site. Manufacturers and other industrial companies accounted for 55 percent of consumption.
Electronics companies used more energy as customers increased orders to prepare for the year-end shopping season.
Production by the information and electronics industries soared 15 percent in September from a year earlier, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Oct. 24.
"The economy was robust, pushing up energy consumption in the industrial sector," the bureau said in a report, which wasn't dated.
Taiwan used 20.1 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in September, 0.7 percent more than the same month last year, it said.
For the first nine months of the year, energy consumption totaled the equivalent of 80.7 million kiloliters of oil, an increase of 2.7 percent from a year earlier, the bureau said. The information and electronics industry consumed 17 percent more energy than a year earlier during the period, while petroleum refiners used 9.5 percent more energy.
The steel industry consumed 2 percent less energy in the first nine months, the bureau said.
Taiwan bought 98 percent of its energy needs from overseas in September. Crude oil imports increased 8.3 percent from a year earlier to 5.1 million kiloliters in the month, the bureau said.
Coal imports increased 17 percent to 5.98 million metric tonnes, and those of liquefied natural gas climbed 9.5 percent to 858 million cubic meters, according to the bureau.
For the January-September period, imports of crude oil gained about 1 percent to 44 million kiloliters and LNG purchases rose 5.6 percent to 6.92 million cubic meters. Coal imports declined 1.5 percent to 45.5 million tonnes.
LNG accounts for about 95 percent of Taiwan's natural gas needs.
Leading Taiwanese bicycle brands Giant Manufacturing Co (巨大機械) and Merida Industry Co (美利達工業) on Sunday said that they have adopted measures to mitigate the impact of the tariff policies of US President Donald Trump’s administration. The US announced at the beginning of this month that it would impose a 20 percent tariff on imported goods made in Taiwan, effective on Thursday last week. The tariff would be added to other pre-existing most-favored-nation duties and industry-specific trade remedy levy, which would bring the overall tariff on Taiwan-made bicycles to between 25.5 percent and 31 percent. However, Giant did not seem too perturbed by the
Foxconn Technology Co (鴻準精密), a metal casing supplier owned by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), yesterday announced plans to invest US$1 billion in the US over the next decade as part of its business transformation strategy. The Apple Inc supplier said in a statement that its board approved the investment on Thursday, as part of a transformation strategy focused on precision mold development, smart manufacturing, robotics and advanced automation. The strategy would have a strong emphasis on artificial intelligence (AI), the company added. The company said it aims to build a flexible, intelligent production ecosystem to boost competitiveness and sustainability. Foxconn
TARIFF CONCERNS: Semiconductor suppliers are tempering expectations for the traditionally strong third quarter, citing US tariff uncertainty and a stronger NT dollar Several Taiwanese semiconductor suppliers are taking a cautious view of the third quarter — typically a peak season for the industry — citing uncertainty over US tariffs and the stronger New Taiwan dollar. Smartphone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科技) said that customers accelerated orders in the first half of the year to avoid potential tariffs threatened by US President Donald Trump’s administration. As a result, it anticipates weaker-than-usual peak-season demand in the third quarter. The US tariff plan, announced on April 2, initially proposed a 32 percent duty on Taiwanese goods. Its implementation was postponed by 90 days to July 9, then
AI SERVER DEMAND: ‘Overall industry demand continues to outpace supply and we are expanding capacity to meet it,’ the company’s chief executive officer said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported that net profit last quarter rose 27 percent from the same quarter last year on the back of demand for cloud services and high-performance computing products. Net profit surged to NT$44.36 billion (US$1.48 billion) from NT$35.04 billion a year earlier. On a quarterly basis, net profit grew 5 percent from NT$42.1 billion. Earnings per share expanded to NT$3.19 from NT$2.53 a year earlier and NT$3.03 in the first quarter. However, a sharp appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar since early May has weighed on the company’s performance, Hon Hai chief financial officer David Huang (黃德才)
RSS