Taiwan’s industrial output expanded 1.41 percent to 128.16 points last month, marking the lowest growth rate in 25 months amid the faltering macro economy, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
The growth rate was the lowest since September 2009 — when it expanded 2.8 percent — it said.
Factory output started to lose steam in April, the first month it saw single-digit growth instead of the double digits earlier this year.
The ministry said on Monday that export orders — an indication of shipments of Taiwanese products and components to overseas markets over the next one to three months — slowed to US$37.21 billion last month.
Export orders were up 4.38 percent last month, the third consecutive month that they posted single-digit growth.
Factory output in the manufacturing industry — which accounts for more than 90 percent of Taiwan’s total factory output and includes the chemical, machinery as well as food and textile sectors — rose 1.34 percent last month.
Output in the computer, electronics and optical peripherals sector advanced 19.77 percent.
The rise was attributed to the strong demand for tablet computers, smartphones and robust orders from Japan for optical peripherals, said the ministry’s statistics department director-general, Huang Ji-shih (黃吉實).
Output in the electronic components sector rose only 2.35 percent as demand for semiconductors was sluggish, Huang said.
The ministry’s statistics showed that factory output for the first 10 months grew 7.33 percent from last year to 133.23 points.
Factory output this month should shrink from last month, given that the flooding in Thailand — which produces a third of the world’s hard disk drives — are expected to cause a more severe PC components shortage than in the previous month, the ministry said.
The ministry yesterday also released figures for Taiwan’s commercial trade last month.
Total revenue for the wholesale, retail as well as food and beverage sectors was NT$1.23 trillion (US$40.5 billion), marking the second-highest amount this year after July.
The figure was up 1.79 percent year-on-year and it edged up 0.23 percent month-on-month.
The figure was bolstered by the food and beverage trade, which recorded strong business thanks to a surge in travelers, as well as the large amount of couples who chose to tie the knot in the auspicious 10th month of Taiwan’s centenary year, the ministry said.
Food and beverage trade was up 11.7 percent to NT$31.8 billion, while retail trade increased 4.79 percent to NT$325.1 billion.
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