Taiwanese companies last month gained more confidence about their business outlook from the previous month, even though sentiment weakened a bit over the Lunar New Year holiday, a survey by the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER, 台經院) showed yesterday.
The business climate gauge for the manufacturing industry stood at 97.99 last month, slowing 1.2 points from a revised 99.19 in January due to holiday distortions, the Taipei-based think tank said, citing its monthly survey.
However, 47.8 percent of the firms were optimistic about their business prospects in the coming six months, up 5.7 percentage points from one month earlier, the survey indicated.
The number of firms with negative views dropped 4.7 percentage points to 8.1 percent, the survey found.
The figures fell in line with the global technology cycle, where firms in the supply chain normally see their business perform strongest one quarter after the Christmas sales season, TIER economic forecasting center director Gordon Sun (孫明德) said.
The business sentiment reading for service sectors fared almost unchanged at 95.87 last month from a revised 95.92 in January, as retailers and restaurant operators were upbeat, but their peers turned conservative, the survey found.
Looking forward, insurance companies and warehouses expect business to improve in the coming six months, the survey said. The construction sector voiced slightly more confidence last month with the business measure hitting 80.29, up 0.72 point from 79.57 in January, ending five months of decline, the survey indicated.
The institute attributed the increase to the advent of the spring sales season between the last week of this month and the end of next month.
While the number of prospective buyers increased after the Lunar New Year, transactions remained weak, TIER said, cautioning against premature expectations of a rebound given lingering policy uncertainty.
KEEPING UP: The acquisition of a cleanroom in Taiwan would enable Micron to increase production in a market where demand continues to outpace supply, a Micron official said Micron Technology Inc has signed a letter of intent to buy a fabrication site in Taiwan from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion to expand its production of memory chips. Micron would take control of the P5 site in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼) and plans to ramp up DRAM production in phases after the transaction closes in the second quarter, the company said in a statement on Saturday. The acquisition includes an existing 12 inch fab cleanroom of 27,871m2 and would further position Micron to address growing global demand for memory solutions, the company said. Micron expects the transaction to
Vincent Wei led fellow Singaporean farmers around an empty Malaysian plot, laying out plans for a greenhouse and rows of leafy vegetables. What he pitched was not just space for crops, but a lifeline for growers struggling to make ends meet in a city-state with high prices and little vacant land. The future agriculture hub is part of a joint special economic zone launched last year by the two neighbors, expected to cost US$123 million and produce 10,000 tonnes of fresh produce annually. It is attracting Singaporean farmers with promises of cheaper land, labor and energy just over the border.
US actor Matthew McConaughey has filed recordings of his image and voice with US patent authorities to protect them from unauthorized usage by artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, a representative said earlier this week. Several video clips and audio recordings were registered by the commercial arm of the Just Keep Livin’ Foundation, a non-profit created by the Oscar-winning actor and his wife, Camila, according to the US Patent and Trademark Office database. Many artists are increasingly concerned about the uncontrolled use of their image via generative AI since the rollout of ChatGPT and other AI-powered tools. Several US states have adopted
A proposed billionaires’ tax in California has ignited a political uproar in Silicon Valley, with tech titans threatening to leave the state while California Governor Gavin Newsom of the Democratic Party maneuvers to defeat a levy that he fears would lead to an exodus of wealth. A technology mecca, California has more billionaires than any other US state — a few hundred, by some estimates. About half its personal income tax revenue, a financial backbone in the nearly US$350 billion budget, comes from the top 1 percent of earners. A large healthcare union is attempting to place a proposal before
RSS