The industrial production index rose 0.73 percent year-on-year to 136.04 last month, its slowest pace in more than two years, dragged by sluggish demand for consumer electronics amid rising economic headwinds, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
The ministry said it expects industrial production to decelerate to a single-digit percentage in the second half of the year, compared with a double-digit percentage expansion registered in the same period last year.
“We are still expecting positive growth this month. The growth in the following period will be by a single-digit percentage, partly because of a high basis of comparison last year,” Department of Statistics Deputy Director-General Huang Wei-jie (黃偉傑) told an online news briefing.
Photo: CNA
The nation’s industrial production performance is largely tied to the global economy as 55 percent of Taiwanese goods are exported overseas, Huang said.
Except for notebook computer and smartphone makers, exporters of chips and raw materials such as basic metals, chemicals and plastics were also affected by slowdowns in consumer electronics, Huang said.
Most of their customers were undergoing inventory corrections after overstocking amid fears of supply disruptions, he added.
The production index for electronic component production climbed 3.54 percent annually last month, led by the semiconductor sub-index, which rose 7.68 percent to its strongest June performance following 32 consecutive months of expansion, ministry data showed.
The growth was fueled by robust demand for automotive chips and chips for high-performance computing devices, such as servers and networking applications, the ministry said.
The production sub-index for displays and related products plummeted 35.16 percent annually, the deepest slump in about 13 years, due to greater exposure to declines in the consumer electronics market, it said.
The production index for computers and other electronics soared 19.5 percent, marking the best June performance ever, driven by higher demand for servers, routers and wireless communications equipment, it said.
Production in the petrochemicals sector shrank 10.98 percent, mainly due to competition from Chinese rivals and as some equipment was under annual maintenance, while the production of rubber material, polypropylene, ethylene glycol and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene was affected by the regular checkups, it said.
The production index for the machinery sector contracted 2.83 percent, which the ministry attributed to a slowing global economy and excessive inventory.
The production index for basic metals plunged 11.3 percent as major steelmakers suspended production due to annual maintenance, while the index for vehicles and auto parts increased 0.26 percent, benefiting from rising demand for sedans due to an extension of a reduction in commodity tax, the ministry said.
A chip shortage continued to limit production growth, it added.
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