Taiwanese manufacturers recorded a 13.48 percent year-on-year gain in shipment value in the first quarter, with oil refinery and coal production businesses seeing the biggest rise, growing by a total of 44.05 percent compared with the first quarter last year.
Shipment values for the domestic and overseas markets saw an annualized 12.62 percent and 14.4 percent increase respectively in the first quarter, which helped the total shipment value jump to NT$3.1459 trillion (US$103.4 billion), the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a press release yesterday.
The chemical material industry saw the third-biggest growth rate in shipment value, with an increase of 28.89 percent year-on-year, the press release said.
High-tech industries sold a total of NT$850.2 billion in electronic components and parts in the first quarter, which amounted to an annualized 15 percent hike in shipment value.
The ministry said the performance could be attributed to the strong global demand for electronic products, adding that integrated device manufacturers and LCD TV makers helped boost the local display panel and motherboard businesses.
However, the ministry said that the shipment value of computers and optical products in the first quarter fell by 1.24 percent to NT$189.1 billion.
The domestic shipment value reached a total of NT$1.615 trillion in the first quarter, representing 51.34 percent of the total sales income, the ministry said, while overseas shipments made up 48.66 percent.
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