Industrial production last month increased 5.99 percent year-on-year, the best single-month performance last year, thanks to higher production of 5G components and rising domestic investment, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
Increasing production of ICs on the back of accelerating 5G deployment last month helped the electronic components industry post an output gain of 11.17 percent year-on-year, reaching a record high, the ministry told a news conference in Taipei.
The increase indicated that the industry has recovered from its previous annual decline in the first half of last year, aggravated by a US-China trade dispute, it said.
The industry reported a 0.62 percent annual increase for total output last year, ministry data showed.
The production improvement, which has a weight of 45 percent of the manufacturing sector, helped manufacturing seize a 6.37 percent increase last month, the highest in a single month last year, the data showed.
COMING HOME
“Taiwanese companies returning to invest in the nation have also contributed significantly to the manufacturing sector in the second half of the year,” Department of Statistics Deputy Director-General Wang Shu-chuan (王淑娟) said, adding that the growth momentum is expected to continue this year as local companies’ investments would materialize.
Meanwhile, output from the computer, electronic goods and optical components sectors last month surged 24.52 percent on an annual basis, marking the 15th month in a row of double-digit percentage annual growth.
These sectors largely benefited from hefty orders of multi-camera lenses and other optical components, the ministry said, adding that growing local production of routers, network switches and laptops also played a pivotal role as companies continue to expand their production capacities in the nation.
GROWING PRODUCTION
The industry last year posted a 26.94 percent increase in production, a record high, the data showed.
By comparison, traditional industries such as chemical materials, base metals and machinery equipment continued witnessing shrinking production, with companies struggling to deal with a global economic slowdown, routine plant inspections and the aftermath of several industrial incidents, Wang said.
Total output from the three industries last year declined 4.4 percent, 8 percent and 14.46 percent annually respectively, Wang said.
Nevertheless, as trade tensions between the US and China ease, these industries’ output is likely to grow this year, Wang said.
The autom and automotive parts industry saw a more rapid recovery compared with its peers, as it posted a 15.71 percent year-on-year increase in output last month.
The increase is mainly due to the approaching Lunar New Year holiday that drove up car sales.
Overall, total output from the manufacturing sector last year decreased 0.37 percent on an annual basis, while overall industrial production posted an even smaller decline of 0.32 percent, ministry data showed.
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