The manufacturing sector posted year-on-year sales growth for a fifth consecutive quarter in the final quarter of last year, bolstered by continuing improvement in the global economy, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Tuesday.
Manufacturers had combined sales of NT$7.53 trillion (US$257 billion) in the fourth quarter of last year, up 6.2 percent from a year earlier, ministry data showed.
The increase came after electronic component and optoelectronics firms saw their sales hit a quarterly high of NT$2.94 trillion, up 9.4 percent year-on-year, as global electronics brands launched new devices, the ministry said.
Many tech firms serve as contractors for these foreign brands, and they benefited from consumer replacements of older models during the period, the ministry said.
Machinery producers saw their sales rise 13.8 percent year-on-year to NT$281.5 billion as manufacturers worldwide sought to automate their production processes, it said.
Manufacturers invested NT$320.2 billion in production equipment, factory construction and transportation equipment in the quarter, down 3.6 percent year-on-year because of a high base of comparison in 2016.
The ministry said that NT$286.8 billion was invested in equipment during the quarter, accounting for 89.6 percent of the total, while NT$30.7 billion, or 9.6 percent, went into factory construction.
The electronics and electronic components segment invested the most of any manufacturing sector at NT$205 billion, but that was down 9.2 percent from a year earlier, again because of a high comparison base, the ministry said.
Manufacturers saw combined sales rise by 5 percent last year from 2016 to NT$26.72 trillion, but total capital formation was down 2 percent to NT$1.08 trillion, it said.
The sector is expected to post another year-on-year increase in sales in the first quarter of this year, because of the continued expansion of production facilities, particularly in the semiconductor sector.
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