Industrial production expanded for the third month in a row last month, but growth momentum is slowing compared with the previous month, a government report showed yesterday.
For the first nine months of the year, total industrial output contracted 1.51 percent compared with the same period last year, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in the report.
The industrial production index rose 3 percent from a year earlier to 129.54 points last month on the back of an expansion in manufacturing and fuel supplies, as well as in the construction and building industries, but the index was 4.69 percent lower than in the previous month, the report said.
Manufacturing sector production — which accounts for more than 90 percent of the nation’s total factory output and includes the electronic, chemical, machinery, foodstuff and textile industries — grew 14.25 percent year-on-year last month, the report showed.
Yang Kuei-hsien (楊貴顯), deputy director-general of the ministry’s statistics department, attributed the results to increasing demand for electronic materials used for new high-tech gadgets, such as handheld devices and tablet computers, which had offset lower output from domestic steelmakers and basic metal manufacturers.
However, there are some uncertain factors that may affect domestic manufacturers’ production in the months ahead, Yang said.
“If the market sustains a positive reaction toward new products running Microsoft [Corp’s] Windows 8 operating system, there is a likelihood that we will see additional demands for related electronic products and components supplied by local manufacturers,” he said.
Industrial Development Bureau Director Hsiao Chen-jung (蕭振榮) said he was “cautiously optimistic” about industrial output next month because of the launch of new smartphones and tablets in the fourth quarter as well as the seasonal demand for new cars.
The ministry’s latest data on domestic trade, also released yesterday, showed revenue for the nation’s retail, wholesale and restaurant sectors totaled NT$1.22 trillion (US$41.4 million) last month, up 1.5 percent from a month earlier, but down 0.8 percent year-on-year.
Cumulative revenue of domestic trade in the first nine months of the year amounted to NT$10.61 trillion, down 0.8 percent year-on-year, the data showed.
Three experts in the high technology industry have said that US President Donald Trump’s pledge to impose higher tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors is part of an effort to force Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to the negotiating table. In a speech to Republicans on Jan. 27, Trump said he intends to impose tariffs on Taiwan to bring chip production to the US. “The incentive is going to be they’re not going to want to pay a 25, 50 or even a 100 percent tax,” he said. Darson Chiu (邱達生), an economics professor at Taichung-based Tunghai University and director-general of
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) is reportedly making another pass at Nissan Motor Co, as the Japanese automaker's tie-up with Honda Motor Co falls apart. Nissan shares rose as much as 6 percent after Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported that Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) instructed former Nissan executive Jun Seki to connect with French carmaker Renault SA, which holds about 36 percent of Nissan’s stock. Hon Hai, the Taiwanese iPhone-maker also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), was exploring an investment or buyout of Nissan last year, but backed off in December after the Japanese carmaker penned a deal
‘LEGACY CHIPS’: Chinese companies have dramatically increased mature chip production capacity, but the West’s drive for secure supply chains offers a lifeline for Taiwan When Powerchip Technology Corp (力晶科技) entered a deal with the eastern Chinese city of Hefei in 2015 to set up a new chip foundry, it hoped the move would help provide better access to the promising Chinese market. However, nine years later, that Chinese foundry, Nexchip Semiconductor Corp (合晶集成), has become one of its biggest rivals in the legacy chip space, leveraging steep discounts after Beijing’s localization call forced Powerchip to give up the once-lucrative business making integrated circuits for Chinese flat panels. Nexchip is among Chinese foundries quickly winning market share in the crucial US$56.3 billion industry of so-called legacy
WASHINGTON POLICY: Tariffs of 10 percent or more and other new costs are tipped to hit shipments of small parcels, cutting export growth by 1.3 percentage points The decision by US President Donald Trump to ban Chinese companies from using a US tariff loophole would hit tens of billions of dollars of trade and reduce China’s economic growth this year, according to new estimates by economists at Nomura Holdings Inc. According to Nomura’s estimates, last year companies such as Shein (希音) and PDD Holdings Inc’s (拼多多控股) Temu shipped US$46 billion of small parcels to the US to take advantage of the rule that allows items with a declared value under US$800 to enter the US tariff-free. Tariffs of 10 percent or more and other new costs would slash such