Business sentiment among domestic manufacturers and service providers rebounded last month on expectations that rush orders and government spending could ease economic woes, a think tank found in a survey released yesterday.
The monthly survey, conducted by the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER, 台經院), found a 20.1 percent increase in the number of manufacturers who feel optimistic about the business climate, while those with a pessimistic outlook fell by 40.8 percent.
Chen Miao (陳淼), director of TIER’s macroeconomic forecast center, said a considerable number of manufacturers appeared to regain confidence on inflows of rush orders from China.
The climate reading for the manufacturing sector picked up 12.95 points for the second consecutive month at 93.46 points last month, Chen told a press briefing.
In addition, 33.7 percent of the companies polled said they were upbeat about business prospects for the next six months, compared with 29 percent in January, the survey found.
“The findings show that the industry believes the stimulus package, notably public works plans, could help spur economic growth,” Chen said.
Respondents with a bearish outlook fell to 23.8 percent from 33.5 percent a month earlier, while firms with neutral expectations stood at 42.5 percent, up from 37.4 percent.
Meanwhile, the climate gauge for the service sector increased 2.35 points to 93.03, which Chen attributed in part to better equity market performance.
The benchmark TAIEX gained 7.28 percent last month, with daily transactions jumping 14.69 percent to NT$6.55 billion (US$1.93 billion), data from the Taiwan Stock Exchange showed.
TIER president David Hong (洪德生) said it was too early to interpret the findings as a sign of recovery, adding that the survey was influenced by the holiday effect. Visibility remained low for the global picture, he said.
From India to China to the US, automakers cannot make vehicles — not that no one wants any, but because a more than US$450 billion industry for semiconductors got blindsided. How did both sides end up here? Over the past two weeks, automakers across the world have bemoaned the shortage of chips. Germany’s Audi, owned by Volkswagen AG, would delay making some of its high-end vehicles because of what chief executive officer Markus Duesmann called a “massive” shortfall in an interview with the Financial Times. The firm has furloughed more than 10,000 workers and reined in production. That is a further blow
MOBILE SMART: The Dimensity 1200 is 22 percent better in terms of performance than its predecessor, and 25 percent more power-efficient, the handset chip designer said MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday unveiled its premium 5G processors — the Dimensity 1200 and Dimensity 1100 — as it vies for a larger slice of the world’s rapidly growing 5G smartphone market. Manufactured using Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (台積電) 6-nanometer process technology, the Dimensity 1200 processor performs 22 percent better than the previous generation Dimensity 1000+ processor, and is 25 percent more power-efficient, MediaTek said. Chinese smartphone brands Xiaomi Corp (小米) and Realme Mobile Telecommunications (Shenzhen) Co (銳爾覓移動通信) are to be the first adopters of the latest Dimensity chips, the companies said during a virtual media briefing. Xiaomi plans to equip its first
‘BROAD RANGE’: The US Department of Commerce intends to deny a significant number of license requests for exports to Huawei, an industry association said US President Donald Trump’s administration notified Huawei Technologies Co (華為) suppliers, including chipmaker Intel Corp, that it is revoking certain licenses to sell to the Chinese company and intends to reject dozens of other applications to supply the telecommunications firm, people familiar with the matter told reporters. The action — likely the last against Huawei under Trump — is the latest in a long-running effort to weaken the world’s largest telecommunications equipment maker, which Washington sees as a national security threat. The notices came amid a flurry of US efforts against China in the final days of Trump’s administration. US president-elect Joe
Answering to a reported request by Germany to help address a chip shortage in its auto industry, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) yesterday said that it was in talks with domestic chip suppliers. Foreign media over the weekend reported that German Minister of Economic Affairs Peter Altmaier had sent a request to Taipei to ask Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to cooperate more closely with German automakers to provide microchips and sensors, to bridge a shortage that has emerged over the past few months. The MOEA said that it had not yet received the request and could therefore not elaborate
RSS