Industrial production expanded 3.25 percent year-on-year last month, beating the government’s estimate of 1 percent growth, on robust growth in electronic components and machinery goods, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
The industrial production index reached 115.81, the highest since the ministry started collecting the data in 1953, the ministry said.
The manufacturing sector, which contributed 92.76 percent to industrial output, gained 4.03 percent annually last month, it said.
The manufacturing production index also hit a record high of 117.21, the ministry’s data showed.
“The result was much better than we expected, mainly because semiconductor, flat-panel and machinery manufacturers received rush orders toward the end of last month,” Department of Statistics Deputy Director-General Wang Shu-chuan (王淑娟) told a press conference.
Production of electronic components advanced 4.57 percent year-on-year last month, while machinery goods surged 14.21 percent annually, data showed.
Automotive production recovered from a decline and increased 11.43 percent last month on the back of robust demand for auto parts from North America and China, Wang said.
However, production of computers, electronics and optical products dropped 5.98 percent year-on-year, mainly affected by a domestic company’s weak shipments of smartphones and virtual-reality devices, Wang said, without naming the company.
The ministry expects manufacturing output to rise 5 percent annually this month on restocking demand for consumer electronics, she said.
In a separate release, the ministry said that the wholesale sector’s revenue rose 6 percent to NT$882.7 billion (US$29.24 billion) last month on robust sales of smartphone chips and memory products.
Restaurant and beverage revenue climbed 4.2 percent to a record-high NT$39.1 billion as retailers added more outlets across the nation, Wang said.
Retail sector revenue ended two months of year-on-year decline to grow 4.3 percent to NT$342.6 billion last month, as sales of cars and motorbikes jumped 30.3 percent from a year ago due to a lower base last year related to the “Ghost Month” effect, she said.
Demand for durable goods usually drops during the seventh month of the lunar year, known as Ghost Month, which began on Aug. 3 last year, but started on Aug. 23 this year.
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