The HSBC manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for Taiwan rose to 51.2 last month, from 50.2 a month earlier, as internal and external demand picked up for the fourth consecutive month, the British banking group said in a report yesterday.
Taiwan’s PMI reading gained a full point last month as local and foreign buyers placed more orders amid the improving economy, HSBC Greater China economist Donna Kwok (郭浩庄) said in the report.
“Taiwan’s manufacturers are back from their Lunar New Year holiday, pushing March’s PMI up to a two-month high,” Kwok said. “The trend underpins our view that GDP maintained positive growth in the first quarter of this year.”
HSBC expects Taiwan’s export-focused economy to expand by 3.8 percent in the first quarter of this year, compared with 3.7 percent three months earlier.
The PMI aims to shed light on the condition of the nation’s manufacturing industry. A score above 50 suggests expansion, while any value below 50 indicates a contraction.
For the first three months, the PMI saw a significant increase, with an average reading of 51, reversing the contraction of 48.6 and 46.4 seen in the third and fourth quarter of last year respectively.
The inventory of finished goods continued to decline, but at a slower pace than in February, the report indicated.
The quantity of purchases rose for the fourth straight month, suggesting a more optimistic outlook among manufacturers, the report said.
Output prices contracted for the 12th straight month, although prices contracted at a slower pace in the first quarter than three months earlier, even though input costs increased in the past six months, the report said.
Manufacturers are still refraining from passing on higher input costs to their customers due to the competitive environment, Kwok said.
The employment index dipped slightly into contraction, but hovered close to the neutral mark of 50, suggesting steady employment levels, the economist said.
“Taiwan’s manufacturing and economic conditions have improved, but the size of improvement remains modest,” she said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six