The official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month fell to 63.2, slowing from an unprecedented high a month earlier, as the Lunar New Year holiday cut the number of working days, while firms displayed the strongest business sentiment on record, the Chunghua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday.
All manufacturing sectors except textile and food suppliers reported business upswings last month from a year earlier, although the Lunar New Year holiday eliminated one week, which explains why the economic barometer stayed in the expansion zone, but shed 1.9 points, the Taipei-based think tank said.
PMI data aim to capture the health of the manufacturing industry, with scores lower than 50 indicating contraction and values above the neutral threshold signaling expansion.
Photo: Chen Wen-chan, Taipei Times
“Holiday disruptions accounted for the month-on-month retreat, which is harmless, as firms expressed clear order visibility for the coming six months,” CIER president Chang Chuang-chang (張傳章) told a media briefing.
Expectations of a global economic recovery have led businesses around the world to rebuild inventory, ramping up production at their local suppliers, Chang said, adding that the trend would become more evident as more people receive COVID-19 vaccines.
The reading on the six-month business outlook added 3.2 points to a record 73.3, as orders swelled across all sectors, Chang said.
For last month, the sub-index on new work stood at 65.6, comfortably in the positive territory, and so was the industrial output measure, at 63.9, the CIER survey showed.
Hiring activity hovered at a similar level of 58, or 0.5 points lower from one month earlier.
The sub-index for delivery time held steady at 73.3, as container shortages and shipping delays deteriorated, it said.
Customers’ inventory level was 44.5, 1.3 points lower from one month earlier.
The measure on raw material prices surged to 87.8, the highest since the launch of the survey in July 2012, as recovery expectations pushed up demand, Chang said, adding that a global container shortage and earlier snow storms in the US made things worse.
Strong order visibility drove some firms to rearrange shipment schedules by first meeting demand from customers who offered higher prices or placed larger orders, CIER researcher Chen Shin-hui (陳馨蕙) said.
Firms are more eager to replenish inventory and less concerned about material costs, compared with the previous quarter, Chen said.
Purchasing activity among non-manufacturing firms last month showed a similar pattern of losing some steam with a reading of 52.1, 2.9 points lower than in January, CIER said.
Unfavorable holiday effects were poignant for shipping and logistics service providers and insurance companies, the institute said.
Service-focused firms are generally upbeat about business moving forward, except restaurants and hotels, it said.
Dutch brewing company Heineken NV yesterday said that it has reached an agreement to acquire a subsidiary brewery of Taiwan’s Sanyo Whisbih Group (三洋維士比集團). Heineken is to assume majority ownership and management rights of the Long Chuan Zuan Co (龍泉鑽興業) brewery in Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔), the Dutch company said. It would become the first multinational brewing company to operate brewery in Taiwan once the acquisition is completed. The deal has been approved by the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Investment Commission, but details of the financial transaction cannot be disclosed at this time, as terms of the settlement have not been completed,
Had Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck hopped on an electric scooter rather than a Vespa in the classic film Roman Holiday, their spin around the Eternal City might have ended in tears. The number of crashes and near-misses involving the two-wheelers has prompted Rome authorities to impose some order on a booming rental market that began two years ago. The havoc came to a head earlier this month when two US tourists attempted a night-time drive down the Spanish Steps, causing more than 25,000 euros (US$26,392) worth of damage to the 18th-century monument. Caught on security footage, the couple in their late 20s
LOOK WHO OWES: China’s exposure to Taiwanese banks was the second-largest, with Luxembourg third, followed by Hong Kong and Japan, the central bank said The US remained the largest debtor country to Taiwan’s banking sector for a 27th consecutive quarter in the first quarter of this year, with its exposure rising 8.3 percent from a quarter earlier on the back of an increase in US bonds, the central bank said on Friday. Data compiled by the central bank showed that outstanding international claims by Taiwanese banks on a direct risk basis to the US stood at US$125.38 billion as of the end of March. Department of Financial Inspection deputy head Pan Ya-hui (潘雅慧) said that the US Federal Reserve’s launch of a rate hike cycle in
GREEN CITY: The company is set to invest US$8 billion to make electric vehicles and batteries for a new city that would rely entirely on renewable energy sources Indonesia said that Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) is considering investing in the country’s new capital city, a move that would bolster the US$34 billion construction project. Hon Hai, which is known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), is looking at setting up an electric bus system and an Internet of Things network at Nusantara, as Indonesia’s new capital is to be called, Indonesian Minister of Investment Bahlil Lahadalia said in a statement yesterday. Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) met with Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Saturday to discuss the company’s plan to invest US$8 billion to build a manufacturing plant
RSS