The nation’s manufacturing output grew at a healthy pace of 4.94 percent year-on-year in the second quarter, driven by an 8.86 percent annual rise in metal and machinery production, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) said yesterday.
The manufacturing sector’s production value in the second quarter rose 8.21 percent from the first quarter, reversing the previous quarter’s 4.02 percent decline, data compiled by the ministry show.
Overall output rose to NT$3.67 trillion (US$122 million) in the April-to-June period, compared with NT$3.49 trillion last year and NT$3.39 trillion in the first quarter, the ministry said in a report.
Production in the metals and machinery industry, as well as in the three other major manufacturing groups, rose steadily in the second quarter, indicating a broad-based recovery.
The report showed that output in the information and electronics sector rose 4.22 percent annually, while the chemical industry increased by 4.04 percent, and food, textiles and other industries climbed 2.41 percent.
A narrower classification by industrial products showed that production of vehicles and automobile parts increased the most in the second quarter, surging 23.18 percent year-on-year to NT$114.3 billion.
Basic metal production posted the second-highest increase at 8.39 percent to NT$396.4 billion for the quarter, followed by the 7.73 percent rise seen in machinery and equipment to NT$166.3 billion. By contrast, computers, electronic devices and optical products contracted at an annual pace of 1.23 percent, the report showed.
On a yearly basis, total manufacturing output rose for three straight quarters, the ministry said.
Total output reached NT$7.05 trillion in the first half of the year, up 2.64 percent from a year earlier, it said.
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