Taiwanese firms last month turned more conservative about the local economy due to inflationary pressures, with the climate gauge for the manufacturing industry falling to 86.73, the lowest since June 2020, the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER, 台灣經濟研究院) said yesterday.
The figure fell from 88.08 a month earlier to post its eight consecutive monthly decline, the Taipei-based think tank told a videoconference, citing the results of its monthly survey.
Only 17.2 percent of the polled manufacturers were optimistic about their business prospects in the coming six months, down from 20.1 percent a month earlier, the institute said.
Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA-EFE
Companies operating in the fields of plastics, chemicals, synthetic fibers, steel and metal, glass, and information technology equipment were more conservative about their business prospects over the period, it said.
About 70 percent of steelmakers expressed pessimism, citing weaker market demand and a correction in raw material prices.
The survey found that about 60 percent of chemical makers were gloomy, as COVID-19 lockdowns in China battered demand, while corrections in oil prices trimmed their profits.
Despite slowing sales of consumer electronics, electronics manufacturers remained upbeat on the back of strong demand for automotive electronics, high-performance computing devices and semiconductors, the institute said.
The depreciation of the New Taiwan dollar against the US dollar also bolstered electronic companies’ sales performance, it added.
However, about 40 percent of the polled electronics manufacturers were conservative about their business outlook over the next six months, citing a shortage of chips, rising inventories and high inflation, the institute said.
The climate gauge for the service sector fell to 95.6 from 97.2 a month earlier, as transportation, logistics and warehousing companies turned conservative for the next six months, the institute said.
Seventy percent of the polled retailers had a neutral outlook for the next six months, due to concerns that high inflation and uncertainty in the global economy would weigh on consumer spending, it said.
Pessimistic sentiment also affected the construction sector, with the business measure falling to 93.12 from 96.61 a month earlier, the institute said.
In contrast, 80 percent of restaurant operators and tourism companies said they were upbeat for the next six months amid a planned easing of border restrictions, the institute said.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained