The composite index for the domestic manufacturing industry flashed the 14th “blue” signal in May with the total score falling, indicating that operating conditions deteriorated due to volatility on global equity markets, the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER, 台經院) said in a report yesterday.
The index lost 0.23 points to 9.89 from April’s 10.12, keeping the monitor signal in recession.
According to the TIER, points below the 10.5 mark indicate a recession and those below 13 suggest a slowdown, while values above the neutral 16 threshold signify an upturn.
“Uncertainty over the global economy and raw material prices dampened investment interest,” the Taipei-based institute said.
The composite index measures the health of the manufacturing industry by analyzing five factors: demand, selling prices, production costs, raw material consumption and operating environment.
The raw material sub-index saw the greatest decline of 0.46 points month-on-month, followed by the operating environment sub-index which lost 0.42 points and the production costs sub-index, which retreated by 0.14 points, the survey showed.
However, the demand sub-index gained 0.46 points, while the selling prices sub-index rose by 0.32 points, the survey showed.
Among the 96 companies operating in the local manufacturing industry surveyed by the institute, 75.24 percent said their business had contracted, while 13.61 percent said their business was sluggish.
Textile companies fared worst due to a supply glut and rising competition, the survey found.
Plastic product manufacturers also struggled, as oil prices remained 20 percent lower then a year earlier, although they improved from the levels in April, the survey showed, while the economic slowdown in China also helped to constrain demand.
The languid conditions extended to electronics firms, although semiconductor companies displayed robust performance, as the global technology product cycle has not yet regained its growth momentum, the survey showed.
Local smartphone vendors and critical component suppliers saw their shipments shrink more than 20 percent in May from a year earlier, the survey showed.
Automakers and auto parts providers fared better thanks to discounts and other promotional campaigns, it showed.
SECOND-RATE: Models distilled from US products do not perform the same as the original and undo measures that ensure the systems are neutral, the US’ cable said The US Department of State has ordered a global push to bring attention to what it said are widespread efforts by Chinese companies, including artificial intelligence (AI) start-up DeepSeek (深度求索), to steal intellectual property from US AI labs, according to a diplomatic cable. The cable, dated Friday and sent to diplomatic and consular posts around the world, instructs diplomatic staff to speak to their foreign counterparts about “concerns over adversaries’ extraction and distillation of US AI models.” Distillation is the process of training smaller AI models using output from larger, more expensive ones to lower the costs of training a powerful new
Shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) have repeatedly hit new highs, but an equity analyst said the stock’s valuation remains within a reasonable range and any pullback would likely be technical. The contract chipmaker’s historical price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio has ranged between 20 and 30, Cathay Futures Consultant Co (國泰證期) analyst Tsai Ming-han (蔡明翰) told Central News Agency. With market consensus projecting that TSMC would post earnings per share of about NT$100 (US$3.17) this year, supported by strong global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, and the stock currently trading at a P/E ratio of below 25, Tsai said the valuation
The artificial intelligence (AI) boom has triggered a seismic reshuffling of global equity markets, with Taiwan and South Korea muscling past European nations one by one. With its stock market now valued at nearly US$4.3 trillion, Taiwan surpassed the UK, Europe’s biggest market, earlier this month, data compiled by Bloomberg showed. South Korea is about US$140 billion away from doing the same. The tech-heavy Asian markets have shot past Germany and France in the past seven months. The shift is largely down to massive gains in shares of three companies that provide essential hardware for AI: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電),
The US Department of Commerce last week ordered multiple chip equipment companies to halt shipments of certain tools to China’s second-largest chipmaker, Hua Hong Semiconductor Ltd (華虹半導體), its latest action to slow the country’s development of advanced chips, two people familiar with the matter said. The department sent letters to at least a handful of companies informing them of restrictions on tools and other materials destined for two Hua Hong facilities US officials believe make China’s most sophisticated chips, the people said. Top US chip equipment companies Lam Research Corp, Applied Materials Inc and KLA Corp, each of which has significant
RSS