Domestic manufacturers continued to see their output post double-digit increases year-on-year for the 13th consecutive month last month, buoyed by stable growth in export orders and domestic demand, data released by the Ministry of Economic Affairs showed yesterday.
For the whole of last year, the nation’s industrial production grew a record 26.38 percent from 2009, with output from the manufacturing sector — the biggest component of overall industrial production with a nearly 80 percent share — expanding 28.03 percent, the ministry said in a press release.
Industrial production expanded 18.18 percent year-on-year last month, following a 19.21 percent rise in November, higher than the 12 percent increase forecast by Citigroup.
Commenting on the latest output data, Citigroup Taiwan chief economist Cheng Cheng-mount (鄭貞茂) said in a note that manufacturing led the growth by increasing 19.01 percent year-on-year, while the utility and construction sectors saw low single-digit growth.
The 3.83 percent monthly expansion in industrial production last month on a seasonally adjusted basis, however, was slower than the 6.52 percent rise in the previous month, the ministry’s data showed.
Industrial production in the fourth quarter of last year grew 17.29 percent from a year ago, with manufacturing output rising 18.05 percent year-on-year, the ministry said.
On a quarterly and seasonally adjusted basis, fourth--quarter industrial production rose 8.28 percent from the previous three months, after declining 0.66 percent in the third quarter and dropping 0.04 percent in the second quarter, the ministry’s data showed.
Looking ahead, the ministry expects industrial production to maintain stable growth in the current quarter as “manufacturers continue gaining orders following the Consumer Electronics Show in the US this month and the Mobile World Congress in Europe next month,” the Central Broadcasting System (中央廣播電台) quoted Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜), deputy director-general of the ministry’s statistics department, as saying yesterday.
In addition, industrial production will also gain support from “continued production outsourcing from IDM [integrated device manufacturing] companies, which has prompted both Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) to consider working overtime during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday,” Tsai said.
TSMC and UMC are the world’s largest and second-largest contract chipmakers.
DOMESTIC SALES
The ministry yesterday also released the latest data for domestic commercial sales, showing that commercial sales — including the retail, wholesale and food and beverage sectors — totaled NT$1.196 trillion (US$40.79 billion) last month, the second highest on record after October’s NT$1.206 trillion.
Last month’s domestic sales were 5.42 percent higher than the same period last year, but lower than the 5.91 percent increase in November, the ministry said in a separate release.
For the full year, domestic sales reached a record level of NT$13.67 trillion last year, up 9.59 percent from 2009, with the wholesale sector leading with the biggest increase of 10.8 percent, followed by the food/beverage sector’s 7.12 percent and the retail sector’s 6.56 percent, the ministry said.
“Strong data for exports, industrial production and retails sales suggest that GDP growth could top 1.0 percent quarter-on-quarter in the fourth quarter, that could transform to a 6 percent increase year-on-year,” Cheng said in the note, adding that growth momentum would remain robust in the current quarter.
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
Intel Corp yesterday reinforced its determination to strengthen its partnerships with Taiwan’s ecosystem partners including original-electronic-manufacturing (OEM) companies such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). “Tonight marks a new beginning. We renew our new partnership with Taiwan ecosystem,” Intel new chief executive officer Tan Lip-bu (陳立武) said at a dinner with representatives from the company’s local partners, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the US chip giant’s presence in Taiwan. Tan took the reins at Intel six weeks ago aiming to reform the chipmaker and revive its past glory. This is the first time Tan
RSS