Business confidence last month picked up among domestic manufacturers and service providers, but the construction and property sectors turned gloomy ahead of the expected enactment of unfavorable legislation, the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER, 台灣經濟研究院) said yesterday.
The sentiment reading gained a fractional 0.87 points among local manufacturing sectors, reversing 10 months of a downturn, as most firms are neutral or slightly more optimistic about business prospects, TIER president Chang Chien-yi (張建一) said.
Inventory adjustments could come to an end in the next six months, but it remains to be seen if demand would be replenished afterward, Chang said, adding that end-market demand remains sluggish amid sharp inflation and monetary tightening.
Photo: CNA
The business outlook appears brighter among ASEAN and Indian markets, while it is recouping in China after Beijing eased its COVID-19 controls, TIER said.
The number of manufacturers with negative views about business prospects decreased 4.5 percentage points to 33.9 percent, while companies with positive views gained 7.2 percentage points to 20.9 percent, the institute’s monthly survey found.
Chemical product suppliers have divergent perspectives, with about 50 percent looking at improvement and 40 percent predicting further deterioration, it said, adding that base metal manufacturers are more optimistic.
A majority of electronics and machinery suppliers remained downbeat, but the degree of pessimism subsided somewhat, the institute said.
The global economy could start to recover after hitting a low at some point next year, TIER economist Gordon Sun (孫明德) said.
A breakthrough in the Ukraine war could take place, speeding up the recovery, Sun said.
The sentiment measure among local service providers rose 0.31 points to 91.21, terminating three months of decline, TIER said.
Securities houses, department stores and restaurants reported an increase in sales, thanks to a rebound in the TAIEX, anniversary sales and loosened COVID-19 restrictions, the survey said.
In contrast, shipping and logistics service providers took a hard hit, as recession fears weighed on demand, it said.
The confidence reading dropped 0.24 points to 85.6 among the construction and property sectors, softening for four consecutive months, it said.
The sentiment retreat is related to the ban on transfers of presale house contracts that could clear the legislature after winning approval from the Ministry of the Interior last week, TIER said.
Interest rate hikes have dampened buying interest, which is why housing transactions last month tumbled nearly 30 percent from a year earlier, it said.
DAMAGE REPORT: Global central banks are assessing war-driven inflation risks as the law of unintended consequences careens around the world, spiking oil prices Central banks from Washington to London and from Jakarta to Taipei are about to make their first assessments of economic damage after more than two weeks of conflict between the US and Iran. Decisions this week encompassing every member of the G7 and eight of the world’s 10 most-traded currency jurisdictions are likely to confirm to investors that the specter of a new inflation shock is already worrying enough to prompt heightened caution. The US Federal Reserve is widely expected to do exactly what everyone anticipated weeks ahead of its March 17-18 policy gathering: hold rates steady. The narrative surrounding that
Apple Inc increased iPhone production in India by about 53 percent last year and now makes a quarter of its marquee devices there, reflecting the US company’s efforts to avoid tariffs on China. The company assembled about 55 million iPhones in India last year, up from 36 million a year earlier, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named because the numbers aren’t public. Apple makes about 220 million to 230 million iPhones a year globally, with India’s share of the total increasing rapidly. Apple has accelerated its expansion in the world’s most populous country in recent years, bolstered
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) share of the global foundry market rose to almost 70 percent last year amid booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI), market information advisory firm TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said on Thursday. The contract chipmaker posted US$122.54 billion in revenue, up 36.1 percent from a year earlier, accounting for 69.9 percent of the global market, TrendForce said. Its share was up from 64.4 percent in 2024, it said. TSMC’s closest rival, Samsung Electronics, was a distant second, posting US$12.63 billion in sales, down 3.9 percent from a year earlier, for a 7.2 percent share of the global market. In the
HEADWINDS: The company said it expects its computer business, as well as consumer electronics and communications segments to see revenue declines due to seasonality Pegatron Corp (和碩) yesterday said it aims to grow its artificial intelligence (AI) server revenue more than 10-fold this year from last year, driven by orders from neocloud solutions clients and large cloud service providers. The electronics manufacturing service provider said AI server revenue growth would be driven primarily by the Nvidia Corp GB300 server platform. Server shipments are expected to increase each quarter this year, with the second half likely to outperform the first half, it said. The AI server market is expected to broaden this year as more inference applications emerge, which would drive demand for system-on-chip, application-specific integrated circuits
RSS