Business sentiment among local manufacturers improved slightly last month, as tech and non-tech firms were upbeat about business going forward, but textile product makers turned conservative, a Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER, 台灣經濟研究院) survey showed yesterday.
Confidence declined in the service and real-estate sectors, and is bound to drop further this month as the COVID-19 outbreak has escalated, reducing economic activity, the Taipei-based think tank said.
The sentiment gauge for the manufacturing industry last month registered 106.37 — a fractional 0.69 increase from a revised score of 105.68 in March, it said.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
It said that 39.6 percent of firms had an optimistic outlook regarding the coming six months, a drop of 3.1 percentage points from a month earlier, while 7.9 percent of firms held a negative view, an increase of 1.2 percentage points, the think tank said.
The remainder were neutral.
Suppliers of electronics, machinery equipment, and steel and chemical products were expecting business to improve in the next six months, but textile product makers forecast a downturn, the think tank said.
The manufacturing sector has benefited from inventory-building demand from clients abroad amid expectations of a global economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, TIER said.
Sectors dependent on domestic demand had a different outlook. The sentiment reading for the service sector stood at 101.47, dropping 1.06 points from a revised 101.47 in March, the institute said.
A majority of retailers, restaurants and telecoms were braced for a decline in business, and their hunch is likely to prove well-founded as authorities on Wednesday last week raised the COVID-19 alert to level 3 nationwide, TIER president Chang Chien-yi (張建一) said.
The drop in customers would wreak havoc on retailers, restaurants, hotels and recreational facilities, Chang said.
Civil engineering firms, and property developers and brokers would also fare poorly after reporting a slight decline in business last month, he said.
The confidence reading for the construction and property sectors dropped a slight 0.59 points to 106.01, declining for a second straight month after policy measures were implemented to cool the property market, the institute said.
Strict social distancing requirements would make it more difficult to find workers for infrastructure and property development projects, Chang said, adding that delays would be inevitable.
Meanwhile, interest in property purchases would slump as people are avoiding going out, TIER said.
EXTRATERRITORIAL REACH: China extended its legal jurisdiction to ban some dual-use goods of Chinese origin from being sold to the US, even by third countries Beijing has set out to extend its domestic laws across international borders with a ban on selling some goods to the US that applies to companies both inside and outside China. The new export control rules are China’s first attempt to replicate the extraterritorial reach of US and European sanctions by covering Chinese products or goods with Chinese parts in them. In an announcement this week, China declared it is banning the sale of dual-use items to the US military and also the export to the US of materials such as gallium and germanium. Companies and people overseas would be subject to
WORLD DOMINATION: TSMC’s lead over second-placed Samsung has grown as the latter faces increased Chinese competition and the end of clients’ product life cycles Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) retained the No. 1 title in the global pure-play wafer foundry business in the third quarter of this year, seeing its market share growing to 64.9 percent to leave South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co, the No. 2 supplier, further behind, Taipei-based TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in a report. TSMC posted US$23.53 billion in sales in the July-September period, up 13.0 percent from a quarter earlier, which boosted its market share to 64.9 percent, up from 62.3 percent in the second quarter, the report issued on Monday last week showed. TSMC benefited from the debut of flagship
TENSE TIMES: Formosa Plastics sees uncertainty surrounding the incoming Trump administration in the US, geopolitical tensions and China’s faltering economy Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), Taiwan’s largest industrial conglomerate, yesterday posted overall revenue of NT$118.61 billion (US$3.66 billion) for last month, marking a 7.2 percent rise from October, but a 2.5 percent fall from one year earlier. The group has mixed views about its business outlook for the current quarter and beyond, as uncertainty builds over the US power transition and geopolitical tensions. Formosa Plastics Corp (台灣塑膠), a vertically integrated supplier of plastic resins and petrochemicals, reported a monthly uptick of 15.3 percent in its revenue to NT$18.15 billion, as Typhoon Kong-rey postponed partial shipments slated for October and last month, it said. The
COLLABORATION: The operations center shows the close partnership between Taiwan and Japan in the field of semiconductors, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo said Tokyo Electron Ltd, Asia’s biggest semiconductor equipment supplier, yesterday launched a NT$2 billion (US$61.5 million) operations center in Tainan as it aims to expand capacity and meet growing demand. Its new Taiwan Operations Center is expected to help customers release their products faster, boost production efficiency and shorten equipment repair time in a cost-effective way, the company said. The center is about a five-minute drive from the factories of its major customers such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) advanced 3-nanometer and 2-nanometer fabs. The operations center would have about 1,000 employees when it is fully utilized, the company
RSS