The government’s business climate monitor last month flashed “green” for the third consecutive month due to strong exports, which in turn benefited electrical and machinery equipment imports, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday.
The total score of the nine constituent readings gained 1 point from the previous month, increasing to 30.
This indicates a state of steady growth, thanks to aggressive spending of global technology titans on artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, NDC research director Wu Ming-huei (吳明蕙) said.
Photo: CNA
Taiwan is home to the world’s major suppliers of advanced chips, high-end servers, storage and memory devices.
“The nation’s exports would thrive, with the landscape looking bright and clear for AI applications,” Wu told a news conference in Taipei.
The council uses a five-color system to indicate the state of the nation’s economy, with “green” meaning steady growth, “red” suggesting a boom and “blue” signaling a recession. Dual colors suggest a transition to a stronger or weaker state.
Outbound shipments last month expanded 18.9 percent year-on-year to US$41.82 billion, with information and communications technology products more than doubling, the Ministry of Finance said earlier this month.
The uptrend is expected to gather steam this quarter, with more product categories to emerge from a slowdown, the ministry said.
Similarly, the tracker on stock price movements showed a boom signal, as the TAIEX rallied above the 20,000-point mark, prompting foreign portfolio managers to lower their holdings and lock in profit, the NDC report said.
The index of leading indicators, which forecasts the economic condition in the following six months, climbed 0.32 percent month-on-month to 101.5, as readings on export orders, money supply, share prices, labor accession rate and business confidence gained headway.
The improvements came even though imports of semiconductor equipment and construction floor space declined, the NDC said.
Local firms remained generally cautious about capital spending on concerns over stubborn inflation in the US and geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.
The index of coincident indicators, which reflects the current economic situation, rose 0.64 percent to 101.45, as all constituent readings on electricity use, overtime hours, and wholesale, retail and restaurant revenues picked up, the council said.
Local firms would benefit further from the positive technology product cycle, but risks regarding restrictive monetary policy in the US, volatile geopolitical tensions and US-China trade disputes warrant caution, the NDC said.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San