The decline in export orders and industrial production slowed last month, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
Export orders fell 22.27 percent year-on-year to US$20.12 billion compared with a record 41.67 percent drop to US$17.68 billion in January, the ministry’s latest data showed.
“We don’t know if the nation’s export orders have reached the bottom and are on their way to recovery, but the decline seems to have slowed down significantly in February,” Huang Ji-shih (黃吉實), director of the ministry’s statistics department, told a press briefing.
Export orders were buoyed by last-minute rush orders from global vendors, Huang said, resulting in 13.81 percent growth month-on-month.
The results were better than Citigroup’s projected 31 percent drop for last month and Standard Chartered Bank’s estimated 24.30 percent drop.
Export orders to the US, China and Europe fell 20.15 percent, 26.30 percent and 19.80 percent respectively to US$4.90 billion, US$4.80 billion and US$3.96 billion from the same period last year.
“They have all improved from January’s record losses,” Huang said.
The only export destination with a drop in orders last month was Japan. Orders from Japan shrank 37.37 percent to US$1.75 billion, Huang said.
“This is not a complete surprise, since Japan announced a 46 percent drop in exports last month,” he said.
Taiwan’s usual top three export industries — telecommunications, consumer electronics and precision instruments — saw an average decline of 26.41 percent, the report showed.
Telecommunications orders fell 10.58 percent to US$4.86 billion, consumer electronics dropped 22.33 percent to US$4.74 billion and precision instruments were down 46.32 percent to US$1.28 billion.
Raw materials replaced precision instruments as the No. 3 export industry last month, with orders totaling US$1.45 billion, representing a 31.75 percent annual decline, Huang said.
The ministry said manufacturers were somewhat optimistic about this month and expected export orders and industrial production to improve from last month.
Industrial production fell 27.14 percent year-on-year last month after plummeting 43.31 percent in January, the ministry said in a separate report yesterday.
Among the top five industrial sectors, construction saw the greatest year-on-year decline in industrial production at 32.77 percent, followed by manufacturing at 27.65 percent, power generation at 10.96 percent, mining at 10.38 percent and water utilities at 6.02 percent.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has approved a capital budget of US$31.28 billion for production expansion to meet long-term development needs during the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. The company’s board meeting yesterday approved the capital appropriation plan for purposes such as the installation of advanced technology capacity and fab construction, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement. At an earnings conference last month, TSMC forecast that its capital expenditure for this year would be at the higher end of the US$52 billion to US$56 billion range it forecast in January in response to robust demand for 5G, AI and
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) investment project in Arizona has progressed better than expected, but it still faces challenges such as water and labor shortages, National Development Council (NDC) Minister Yeh Chun-hsien (葉俊顯) said yesterday. Speaking with reporters after visiting TSMC’s Arizona hub and attending the SelectUSA Investment Summit in Maryland last week, Yeh said TSMC’s Arizona site turned a profit of NT$16.14 billion (US$514 million) last year in its first full year of mass production. “TSMC told me it was surprised by the smooth trial run of the first fab, which has left the company optimistic about the project’s outlook,”
RSS