Industrial production expanded for the third month in a row last month, but growth momentum is slowing compared with the previous month, a government report showed yesterday.
For the first nine months of the year, total industrial output contracted 1.51 percent compared with the same period last year, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in the report.
The industrial production index rose 3 percent from a year earlier to 129.54 points last month on the back of an expansion in manufacturing and fuel supplies, as well as in the construction and building industries, but the index was 4.69 percent lower than in the previous month, the report said.
Manufacturing sector production — which accounts for more than 90 percent of the nation’s total factory output and includes the electronic, chemical, machinery, foodstuff and textile industries — grew 14.25 percent year-on-year last month, the report showed.
Yang Kuei-hsien (楊貴顯), deputy director-general of the ministry’s statistics department, attributed the results to increasing demand for electronic materials used for new high-tech gadgets, such as handheld devices and tablet computers, which had offset lower output from domestic steelmakers and basic metal manufacturers.
However, there are some uncertain factors that may affect domestic manufacturers’ production in the months ahead, Yang said.
“If the market sustains a positive reaction toward new products running Microsoft [Corp’s] Windows 8 operating system, there is a likelihood that we will see additional demands for related electronic products and components supplied by local manufacturers,” he said.
Industrial Development Bureau Director Hsiao Chen-jung (蕭振榮) said he was “cautiously optimistic” about industrial output next month because of the launch of new smartphones and tablets in the fourth quarter as well as the seasonal demand for new cars.
The ministry’s latest data on domestic trade, also released yesterday, showed revenue for the nation’s retail, wholesale and restaurant sectors totaled NT$1.22 trillion (US$41.4 million) last month, up 1.5 percent from a month earlier, but down 0.8 percent year-on-year.
Cumulative revenue of domestic trade in the first nine months of the year amounted to NT$10.61 trillion, down 0.8 percent year-on-year, the data showed.
SEEKING CLARITY: Washington should not adopt measures that create uncertainties for ‘existing semiconductor investments,’ TSMC said referring to its US$165 billion in the US Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) told the US that any future tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors could reduce demand for chips and derail its pledge to increase its investment in Arizona. “New import restrictions could jeopardize current US leadership in the competitive technology industry and create uncertainties for many committed semiconductor capital projects in the US, including TSMC Arizona’s significant investment plan in Phoenix,” the chipmaker wrote in a letter to the US Department of Commerce. TSMC issued the warning in response to a solicitation for comments by the department on a possible tariff on semiconductor imports by US President Donald Trump’s
The government has launched a three-pronged strategy to attract local and international talent, aiming to position Taiwan as a new global hub following Nvidia Corp’s announcement that it has chosen Taipei as the site of its Taiwan headquarters. Nvidia cofounder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Monday last week announced during his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei that the Nvidia Constellation, the company’s planned Taiwan headquarters, would be located in the Beitou-Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區) in Taipei. Huang’s decision to establish a base in Taiwan is “primarily due to Taiwan’s talent pool and its strength in the semiconductor
An earnings report from semiconductor giant and artificial intelligence (AI) bellwether Nvidia Corp takes center stage for Wall Street this week, as stocks hit a speed bump of worries over US federal deficits driving up Treasury yields. US equities pulled back last week after a torrid rally, as investors turned their attention to tax and spending legislation poised to swell the US government’s US$36 trillion in debt. Long-dated US Treasury yields rose amid the fiscal worries, with the 30-year yield topping 5 percent and hitting its highest level since late 2023. Stocks were dealt another blow on Friday when US President Donald
UNCERTAINTY: Investors remain worried that trade negotiations with Washington could go poorly, given Trump’s inconsistency on tariffs in his second term, experts said The consumer confidence index this month fell for a ninth consecutive month to its lowest level in 13 months, as global trade uncertainties and tariff risks cloud Taiwan’s economic outlook, a survey released yesterday by National Central University found. The biggest decline came from the timing for stock investments, which plunged 11.82 points to 26.82, underscoring bleak investor confidence, it said. “Although the TAIEX reclaimed the 21,000-point mark after the US and China agreed to bury the hatchet for 90 days, investors remain worried that the situation would turn sour later,” said Dachrahn Wu (吳大任), director of the university’s Research Center for
RSS