Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month rose 6 and 15.8 percent respectively from a year earlier, while sales in the wholesale sector posted an annual decline for an 11th consecutive month, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales would continue to grow this month due to anniversary sale events at department stores; seasonal demand for clothing, cosmetics and skin care products; and the effect of the Double Ten National Day holiday.
However, the wholesale sector is likely to experience a sales slump for another month as global economy and trade momentum remains weak, while supply chains continue to adjust inventories, it said.
Photo: Su Meng-chuan, Taipei Times
Last month, the retail sector’s sales were NT$374.7 billion (US$11.58 billion), the highest level for the same month, as people spent more during the Mid-Autumn Festival and retailers enhanced anniversary promotions, while purchases of new vehicles remained strong, the ministry said.
In the first nine months of this year, retail sales totaled NT$3.35 trillion, up 7.7 percent from a year earlier, the data showed.
The ministry said it expects retail sales to grow between 4.8 and 7.8 percent annually to between NT$398.9 billion and NT$410.3 billion this month.
Sales in the food and beverage sector reached NT$83.5 billion last month, rising for a 17th straight month on an annual basis, as catering service providers posted a 29.9 percent rise in sales due to robust demand for in-flight meals, while restaurant sales grew 15.8 percent and sales at beverage outlets gained 11.3 percent because of the holiday effect and special sale promotions, the report said.
In the first nine months, food and beverage sales rose 22.6 percent year-on-year to NT$767.2 billion, while sales this month are projected to grow 11.1 to 14.1 percent to between NT$85.4 billion and NT$87.8 billion, it said.
The wholesale sector’s sales last month were NT$1.07 trillion, down 3.8 percent year-on-year, but up 8.3 percent month-on-month, as demand for machinery equipment, building materials and chemical materials remained lackluster, offsetting that for food, beverage and tobacco products, the report said.
Cumulative sales in the sector in the first nine months fell 9.8 percent to NT$9.65 trillion, and sales for this month are estimated to drop by 0.6 to 3.6 percent to between NT$1.03 trillion and NT$1.06 trillion, the ministry said.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
POWER BUILDUP: Powered by Nvidia’s B200 Blackwell chips, the data center would support MediaTek’s computing power demand and business growth, the company said Smartphone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday launched a new artificial intelligence (AI) data center with a maximum capacity of 45 megawatts to meet its rising demand for computing power required to develop new advanced chips for AI applications. The company has completed the first-phase computing power buildup at the data center in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), providing 15 megawatts of capacity to support its research and development (R&D) capabilities, despite an industrywide shortage of key components, MediaTek said. Supply constraints have plagued a wide range of key components, including memory chips, solid-state drives, power supply units and central
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
RSS