Taiwan’s official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) was 56 last month, down from 56.1 in July, suggesting continued improvement in operating conditions, although the pace has probably plateaued, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday.
While it has been in expansion territory for the past 29 months, the critical economic bellwether eased to its lowest level in 19 months as tariff rows raised uncertainty over the global economy, the Taipei-based think tank said.
“The global scene grows increasingly opaque, but might continue to expand for the rest of the year,” CIER president Wu Chung-shu (吳中書) told a media briefing.
PMI data aim to gauge the health of the local manufacturing industry, Taiwan’s main growth driver, with values larger than 50 indicating expansion and values below the threshold signaling contraction.
The sub-indices on new orders, industrial output and exports slipped marginally from a month earlier, but stayed comfortably in expansion mode, Wu said.
Taiwan is home to the world’s largest suppliers of semiconductors, electronic parts and components used in smartphones and laptops, as well as Internet of Things and artificial intelligence applications.
Global technology brands, including Apple Inc, are to unveil next-generation gadgets this month, ramping up business for firms in their global supply chains, analysts have said.
That explained why the employment sub-index gained 2.1 points to 54.7 last month, the PMI report found.
Meanwhile, raw material prices continued an uptrend, with the sub-index registering 65.6, while imported raw material volume held at 56, compared with 68.6 and 56 respectively a month earlier, it said.
Meanwhile, the private Nikkei Taiwan Manufacturing PMI reported a value of 53.
Annabel Fiddes, principle economist at IHS Markit, which compiles the Nikkei survey, said export sales rose for the 27th month in a row and at a solid pace, suggesting that external demand remained robust.
Other sub-index data hinted at the possibility of a growth slowdown in the months ahead, Fiddes said.
Firms are less optimistic about their business outlook for the next six to 12 months, weighed by the ongoing US-China trade dispute, both surveys found.
In related developments, the non-manufacturing index (NMI) last month stayed above the neutral threshold at 52.6, although it shed 4.4 points from a month earlier, the CIER said in a separate survey.
Despite continued improvement, firms in the hospitality, construction, financial and insurance sectors have a dim view of the six-month business outlook, the NMI report showed.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San