DBS Bank yesterday stood by its yearly GDP growth forecast of 2.4 percent, saying it expects the economy to expand by 2 percent in the third quarter and 2.5 percent in the fourth quarter.
The nation’s GDP grew 2.4 percent in the first half of the year, it said.
“Experts are expecting a cyclical rebound in the next couple of quarters... Electronics exports came off a peak in the second quarter due to a low season and a high base effect,” it said.
However, seasonal demand in the sector is expected to take effect, as Apple Inc released its new iPhones in the middle of last month, DBS said.
The OLED-screen iPhone will be available in mass quantities at the end of this year, boding well for the outlook of Taiwan’s electronics exports this quarter and early next year, the Singaporean lender said.
Non-electronics exports have been increasing since the second quarter, thanks to stabilizing international commodity prices and improving regional trade flows DBS said, .
The global economy remains on track to recovery, despite earlier concerns about US trade protectionism, European elections and China’s slowdown, it said.
Investment is also expected to pick up, albeit slightly, it added.
Gross fixed capital formation contracted 0.3 percent in the second quarter, mainly due to a 1 percent decline in private investment, the bank said.
However, when exports regain momentum, manufacturers are likely to expand capital spending again and private machinery investment will recover accordingly, it said.
Private construction investment has shown signs of bottoming out, the lender said, adding that construction building permits have stopped their decline and have been increasing since the first quarter, as property prices bounced back.
SEMICONDUCTORS: The German laser and plasma generator company will expand its local services as its specialized offerings support Taiwan’s semiconductor industries Trumpf SE + Co KG, a global leader in supplying laser technology and plasma generators used in chip production, is expanding its investments in Taiwan in an effort to deeply integrate into the global semiconductor supply chain in the pursuit of growth. The company, headquartered in Ditzingen, Germany, has invested significantly in a newly inaugurated regional technical center for plasma generators in Taoyuan, its latest expansion in Taiwan after being engaged in various industries for more than 25 years. The center, the first of its kind Trumpf built outside Germany, aims to serve customers from Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia and South Korea,
Gasoline and diesel prices at domestic fuel stations are to fall NT$0.2 per liter this week, down for a second consecutive week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to drop to NT$26.4, NT$27.9 and NT$29.9 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to fall to NT$24.8 per liter at CPC stations and NT$24.6 at Formosa pumps, they said. The price adjustments came even as international crude oil prices rose last week, as traders
POWERING UP: PSUs for AI servers made up about 50% of Delta’s total server PSU revenue during the first three quarters of last year, the company said Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) reported record-high revenue of NT$161.61 billion (US$5.11 billion) for last quarter and said it remains positive about this quarter. Last quarter’s figure was up 7.6 percent from the previous quarter and 41.51 percent higher than a year earlier, and largely in line with Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co’s (元大投顧) forecast of NT$160 billion. Delta’s annual revenue last year rose 31.76 percent year-on-year to NT$554.89 billion, also a record high for the company. Its strong performance reflected continued demand for high-performance power solutions and advanced liquid-cooling products used in artificial intelligence (AI) data centers,
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