The industrial production index slumped for a fourth consecutive month in December last year, retreating 7.93 percent from a year earlier, but eked out a gain of 0.88 percent for the full year, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
The manufacturing subindex, which makes up 93 percent of the industrial production index, decreased 8.4 percent in December, dragged by slower activity in the flat-panel, chemical materials, metal and machinery sectors, the ministry said.
Flat-panel makers posted the largest drop among manufacturing sectors, plummeting 47.63 percent, due to lower demand for consumer electronics and excess inventory.
Photo: Cheng I-Hwa, Bloomberg
For the full year, the sector fell 29 percent annually, the ministry said.
The semiconductor sector, another pillar of the electronic component industry, continued to grow, posting a 3.46 percent year-on-year increase, bolstered by increasing production of 12-inch wafers.
It grew 15 percent last year compared with 2021, the ministry said.
Overall, the production of electronic components advanced 6.73 percent last year, hitting a new high, the ministry’s data showed.
Affected by lower demand, computer and optoelectronics production increased at a much slower pace, edging up 0.3 percent in December, with output of lenses for mobile devices, TVs and smart watches decelerating the most, the ministry said.
However, for the full year, output still increased 11.4 percent annually and hit a record, the ministry said.
Overall, the industrial production index hit an all-time high of 132.87 for last year, with the manufacturing subindex rising 0.89 percent to a record 135.05, the ministry’s data showed.
The ministry expects the inventory issue to be resolved by June at the latest, with the traditional industry likely seeing a faster inventory drawdown than the electronic components industry, Department of Statistics Deputy Director-General Huang Wei-jie (黃偉傑) told a news conference in Taipei.
“We noticed that the inventory ratio in the electronic components industry was even higher in December than in November, while that in the traditional industry had begun sliding from November,” Huang said.
The industrial production index likely continued to decline last month, affected by fewer working days due to the Lunar New Year holiday, inflation and US-China tensions, he said.
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