The industrial production index grew at a stronger-than-expected 3.32 percent annually to 91.21 last month, thanks to continuing robust demand for handheld devices, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
The growth outpaced the market’s consensus estimate of 1.2 percent, a UBS report said.
In spite of fewer working days due to the Lunar New Year holiday and the three-day Peace Memorial Day weekend last month, production output for the manufacturing sub-index, which accounted for 92.76 percent of industrial output, saw a 3.55 percent rise from the same period a year ago, Department of Statistics Deputy Director-General Yang Kuei-hsien (楊貴顯) told a press conference.
“Taiwan’s information technology sector was not severely affected by a seasonal slowdown because of the strong demand for handheld devices and Internet of Things-related products,” Yang said.
For the first two months of this year, the nation’s industrial production rose 6.5 percent year-on-year, Yang said, adding that electronics, computers, optical modulators and machines all reported annual double-digit growth.
Yang said that production output for automobile and automobile parts grew 6.37 percent in the past two months from the same period a year ago, but that chemical production recorded a 1.95 percent annual decline due to the plunge in international crude oil prices.
Yang said he expects the production growth momentum from the semiconductor, handheld device and optical modulator manufacturers to extend through the rest of the year on the back of rising demand for handheld devices and LED lighting applications.
“The nation’s machine tool makers are also expected to increase production as they received a lot of orders during the Taipei International Machine Tool Show earlier this month in Taipei,” Yang said.
However, the steel and petrochemical sectors have to closely monitor global steel and crude oil product prices, Yang said, adding that he expects the growth momentum in these sectors to slow this year due to opaque international price trends.
In a separate release, the ministry said that commercial sales rose 0.9 percent annually to NT$1.0548 trillion (US$33.65 billion) last month, driven by robust sales in the retail and restaurant sectors because of the shopping demand for the Lunar New Year holiday.
Retail sales jumped 10.7 percent annually to NT$329.8 billion last month, while the restaurant sector saw a 10.7 percent annual rise in revenue to NT$38.5 billion, data showed.
The wholesale sector declined 3.7 percent year-on-year to NT$686.5 billion last month, mainly because of the falling prices of petrochemicals, which consequently impacted the revenues of Taiwan’s chemical producers, Yang said.
In the first two months of this year, domestic commercial sales totaled NT$2.2859 trillion, up 0.1 percent from a year ago, the data showed.
Recent launches of new smart handheld devices and wearable products are expected to drive sales of the wholesale sector this month, boosting total commercial sales to a higher level than last month, Yang said, without offering an estimate.
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