The manufacturing industry saw its growth accelerate in January from a stable state in the previous month, with an index gauging the sector’s health at “yellow-red” for the first time since September 2010, the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER, 台灣經濟研究院) said yesterday.
The think tank attributed the upward trend to a gradual recovery around the world — as an increasing number of countries have launched programs to vaccinate their residents against COVID-19 — and to the booming stay-at-home economy, which has increased demand for electronics.
The manufacturing sector has also benefited as businesses increased inventories prior to the Lunar New Year holiday.
Photo: CNA
Outputs from traditional industries were also robust, thanks to strong consumption and further increasing demand for raw materials, the institution said.
As a result, the composite index for the local manufacturing sector in January rose to 16.79 points — the first “yellow-red” indicator in 10 years — from 13.43 in December last year, TIER data showed.
The institute uses a five-color system to indicate economic activity, with red signaling overheating, yellow-red showing rapid growth, green representing stable growth, yellow-blue sluggish growth and blue reflecting a contraction.
Within manufacturing, economic activity continued strongly — with the indicator at “red” — in the information sector, and the electronic parts and components sector.
“Overall, the domestic manufacturing sector remains set to enjoy optimistic prospects,” the institute said in a news release yesterday.
Looking ahead, the institute said that the COVID-19 pandemic and unstable trade relations between the US and China would continue to challenge the global economy.
Nevertheless, continuous expansion in 5G, high-performance computing and artificial intelligence, increasing demand in the stay-at-home economy and advanced production techniques in the semiconductor sector are expected to foster growth of the electronics and information sectors, the institute added.
RETAIL BANKING EXIT: Clients are concerned whether their rights would be protected, while employees were caught by surprise as the bank had just upgraded its services Citibank Taiwan Ltd (花旗台灣) yesterday said that credit card clients could continue using their cards as operations would continue normally until it sells its consumer banking business. As of February, the bank had 2.86 million credit cards in circulation in Taiwan, of which 2.17 million had been used in the past six months, ranking it sixth among all banks, data from the Financial Supervisory Commission showed. Credit card spending by Citibank clients totaled NT$15.66 billion (US$552.6 million) in February, also ranking sixth among banks in Taiwan. Citibank was the only foreign bank that made it into the top six. Customers should not
FUTURE GROWTH: TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei said customer demand for 3 and 5-nanometer technologies is so strong that it needs to spend on more capacity Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday raised this year’s capital expenditure to a record US$30 billion, as demand for advanced chips used in high-performance-computing (HPC) applications is stronger than last quarter. The figure surpasses the chipmaker’s allocation in January of US$25 billion to US$28 billion. The investment is part of a three-year US$100 billion capital expansion plan that TSMC unveiled earlier this month. “As we enter a period of higher growth, underpinned by the multiple years of structural mega-trends of 5G-related and HPC applications, we believe a higher level of capital investment is necessary to capture the future growth opportunities,” TSMC
PANDEMIC EFFECT: Chromebook shipments in the first quarter more than tripled from a year earlier, driven primarily by educational institutions in North America Despite a semiconductor shortage, global PC shipments in the first quarter of this year increased 32 percent from a year earlier, preliminary data from research firm Gartner Inc showed. Shipments in the January-to-March period totaled 69.87 million units from 52.93 million units a year earlier, Gartner said in a report on Monday last week. The quarterly increase in shipments marked the fastest annual growth since it began tracking the PC market in 2000, Gartner said. “This growth should be viewed in the context of two unique factors: comparisons against a pandemic-constrained market and the current global semiconductor shortage,” Gartner research director Mikako Kitagawa
UNWINDING BIGGEST DEAL: Five years ago, Dell acquired VMware’s parent, EMC Corp, for US$67 billion, which helped the PC maker to branch out from its origins Dell Technologies Inc on Wednesday said that it would spin off its stake in VMware Inc, creating two publicly traded companies and raising cash to pay down debt. Its shares jumped on the announcement. The spinoff would unwind, at least in part, a consolidation created five years ago in Dell’s US$67 billion acquisition of VMware’s parent, EMC Corp. The spending spree helped Dell branch out from its origins as a PC maker, but left the company saddled with debt. VMware would distribute a special cash dividend of US$11.5 billion to US$12 billion to shareholders at the close of the deal, which is