The nation’s official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) registered 54.9 last month, above the 50 threshold indicating improvement in the sector, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday.
However, the institute said the result for last month had more to do with a low base of comparison in February than signs of a recovery, because the reading after seasonal adjustments continued to contract, although at a milder pace.
“A recovery remains elusive, even though the operating conditions showed improvement last month and beyond,” CIER president Wu Chung-shu (吳中書) told a news conference.
The Nikkei Taiwan Manufacturing PMI arrived at similar findings, as the index stood at 51.1 on the back of new orders, according to a survey compiled by London-based research body Markit.
With the exception of the food and textile sectors, firms reported improving business, raising the sub-index on new orders to 61.3 last month from 37 in February, the CIER report said.
The launch of Apple Inc’s iPhone SE models last month boosted local technology firms in Apple’s supply chain, Supply Management Institute in Taiwan (中華採購與供應管理協會) executive director Steve Lai (賴樹鑫) said.
The relatively low-priced SE series aims to fill the void ahead of the introduction of the iPhone 7 in September, Lai said, adding that consumers have given it a warm welcome so far.
However, it remains to be seen if the excitement will turn out to be short-lived, as was the case for the iPhone 6S, he said.
The US technology giant is tapping the software market by making its devices useful for professional baseball players in the analysis of moves by their rivals, Lai said.
The expanded use might not translate into new business for Taiwanese contract makers in the short term, but things might change if they take advantage of the shift in tastes, he said.
The CIER report showed that the output sub-index soared to 63.8 last month from 29.4 in February, while that for export orders rose from 42.1 to 56.6.
The business landscape might continue to brighten, as the six-month outlook sub-index registered 51.8, meaning a majority of firms are expecting better prospects, the report said.
The business upturn also extended to non-manufacturing sectors, with the non-manufacturing index climbing to 50.5 last month, from 42.9 in February, a separate CIER report said.
However, service-oriented companies have a grim outlook in light of the six-month outlook standing at 38.1, the report showed.
In particular, companies involved in property construction and brokerage remained a drag due to sluggish market demand, Wu said.
PATENTS: MediaTek Inc said it would not comment on ongoing legal cases, but does not expect the legal action by Huawei to affect its business operations Smartphone integrated chips designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) on Friday said that a lawsuit filed by Chinese smartphone brand Huawei Technologies Co (華為) over alleged patent infringements would have little impact on its operations. In an announcement posted on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, MediaTek said that it would not comment on an ongoing legal case. However, the company said that Huawei’s legal action would have little impact on its operations. MediaTek’s statement came after China-based PRIP Research said on Thursday that Huawei filed a lawsuit with a Chinese district court claiming that MediaTek infringed on its patents. The infringement mentioned in the lawsuit likely involved
Taipei is today suspending work, classes and its US$2.4 trillion stock market as Typhoon Gaemi approaches Taiwan with strong winds and heavy rain. The nation is not conducting securities, currency or fixed income trading, statements from its stock and currency exchanges said. Authorities had yesterday issued a warning that the storm could affect people on land and canceled some ship crossings and domestic flights. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) expects its local chipmaking fabs to maintain normal production, the company said in an e-mailed statement. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp said it has activated routine typhoon alert
GROWTH: TSMC increased its projected revenue growth for this year to more than 25 percent, citing stronger-than-expected demand for AI devices and smartphones The Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER, 台灣經濟研究院) yesterday raised its forecast for Taiwan’s GDP growth this year from 3.29 percent to 3.85 percent, as exports and private investment recovered faster than it predicted three months ago. The Taipei-based think tank also expects that Taiwan would see a 8.19 percent increase in exports this year, better than the 7.55 percent it projected in April, as US technology giants spent more money on artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and development. “There will be more AI servers going forward, but it remains to be seen if the momentum would extend to personal computers, smartphones and
Catastrophic computer outages caused by a software update from one company have once again exposed the dangers of global technological dependence on a handful of players, experts said on Friday. A flawed update sent out by the little-known security firm CrowdStrike Holdings Inc brought airlines, TV stations and myriad other aspects of daily life to a standstill. The outages affected companies or individuals that use CrowdStrike on the Microsoft Inc’s Windows platform. When they applied the update, the incompatible software crashed computers into a frozen state known as the “blue screen of death.” “Today CrowdStrike has become a household name, but not in