The nations’ manufacturing sector is expected to emerge from a two-year contraction next year, as the improving global economy stimulates demand for electronic goods, the Industrial Economics and Knowledge Center (IEK, 產業經濟與趨勢研究中心) said yesterday.
“We have seen some positive signs such as an uptrend in exports and industrial output,” IEK senior researcher Peter Cheng (陳志強) said at a news conference. “However, the pickup will be moderate, as the international economic outlook will still be precarious next year.”
The manufacturing sector would see revenue grow by 1 percent year-on-year to NT$17.58 trillion (US$557.56 billion) next year, with the information and communications industry taking the lead, Cheng said.
The information and communication industry — the pillar of the nation’s manufacturing sector — would see revenue next year expand 2.05 percent annually to NT$6.46 trillion, Cheng said.
“Moderate growth in the US economy next year will help spur demand for smartphones and LCD TVs,” Cheng said.
The petrochemical industry, another major contributor to manufacturing output, would post annual growth of 1.23 percent to reach NT$4.29 trillion in revenue next year, compared with an annual decline of 4.17 percent this year, IEK estimated.
The research center said that stabilizing global crude oil prices next year would help lift prices for petrochemical goods.
Crude oil prices are forecast to rebound to an average of US$50 per barrel next year, from US$43 this year, it said, citing the latest IMF forecast.
The livelihood sector — including the textile industry — is forecast to expand revenue by just 0.92 percent annually to NT$2.25 trillion next year, due to inventory digestion and intensifying competition from emerging markets, IEK said.
The basic metal and machinery industry will be the only industry to remain in the red, with revenue expected to see an annual contraction of 0.6 percent to NT$4.58 trillion, due to a continuing glut on the market, Cheng said.
However, that would still be an improvement from the industry’s estimated 5.08 percent decline this year, he said.
IEK yesterday trimmed its projection for the overall manufacturing sector this year to an annual decline of 1.91 percent to NT$17.41 trillion, a deeper reduction than July’s estimate of a 1.71 percent contraction due to a weaker-than-expected recovery.
The nation’s semiconductor industry is expected to see revenue grow as much as 4.2 percent annually to NT$2.52 trillion next year, following estimated growth of 7.2 percent for this year, IEK researcher Jerry Peng (彭茂榮) said.
Reviving demand for LCD TVs and game consoles would lead growth next year, Peng said.
The local semiconductor industry is to see an uptick through the second quarter of next year, along with its global peers, he said.
With Taiwanese chipmakers seeing an increase in orders because of their stronger technological capabilities, Peng said that the industry’s future growth prospects could be threatened by escalating competition from China.
China’s output is expected to surpass Taiwan’s in 2020, when its semiconductor industry is expected to be worth more than NT$3 trillion compared with last year’s NT$1.8 trillion, he said.
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
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained