The industrial production index last month increased by 14.61 percent year-on-year, accelerating from the 4.2 percent growth the previous month, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
Industrial production measures the change in the value of output produced by manufacturers, utilities and mines.
Last month’s increase came as improvements in manufacturing output and electricity and gas supply more than offset setbacks in mining output and water supply, the ministry said in the report.
Photo: CNA
Manufacturing output, which accounted for 95.39 percent of the industrial production index, rose for a second consecutive month, the report said.
It increased by 14.9 percent annually last month, which was in line with the ministry’s estimate of between 11.1 percent and 16.4 percent, the report added.
Among the six major industries in the manufacturing sector, five posted output expansion last month, with the computer and optical products industry reporting the largest increase of 37.14 percent, the ministry said.
It was also the industry’s strongest expansion in 11 years, on the back of strong shipments of servers, computer equipment and components, and handset camera lenses amid rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, cloud data services and mobile phones, it said.
Output of the electronic components industry rose by 23.01 percent last month, the largest increase since August 2021, the ministry said.
The sector is mainly comprised of semiconductors and flat panels, and accounts for 47.32 percent of total manufacturing output.
The increase could be attributed to the growing demand for high-performance computing and AI applications, which boosted foundry companies’ 12-inch fab production, the ministry said.
Meanwhile, integrated circuit designers, DRAM makers, semiconductor testers and printed circuit board suppliers saw a gradual rebound in orders, the ministry added.
As for the three traditional industries, output for chemical materials and fertilizers increased by 5.07 percent, machinery grew by 8.21 percent, and vehicle manufacturing went up by 0.43 percent due to improved market fundamentals and steady inventory replenishment by firms, the report said.
The base metals industry contracted for the third consecutive time last month, with its output falling by 4.41 percent from a year earlier, as the recovery in demand was still weak and the supply of low-priced steel products disrupted market sentiment, the ministry said.
In the first four months of the year, industrial production expanded by 8.11 percent and manufacturing output grew by 8.26 percent from the same period last year, the report said.
The ministry expects the growth momentum in the manufacturing sector to continue in the coming months and predicts that manufacturing output will expand between 6.7 percent and 11.4 percent annually this month.
Napoleon Osorio is proud of being the first taxi driver to have accepted payment in bitcoin in the first country in the world to make the cryptocurrency legal tender: El Salvador. He credits Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s decision to bank on bitcoin three years ago with changing his life. “Before I was unemployed... And now I have my own business,” said the 39-year-old businessman, who uses an app to charge for rides in bitcoin and now runs his own car rental company. Three years ago the leader of the Central American nation took a huge gamble when he put bitcoin
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
PARTNERSHIPS: TSMC said it has been working with multiple memorychip makers for more than two years to provide a full spectrum of solutions to address AI demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it has been collaborating with multiple memorychip makers in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) used in artificial intelligence (AI) applications for more than two years, refuting South Korean media report's about an unprecedented partnership with Samsung Electronics Co. As Samsung is competing with TSMC for a bigger foundry business, any cooperation between the two technology heavyweights would catch the eyes of investors and experts in the semiconductor industry. “We have been working with memory partners, including Micron, Samsung Memory and SK Hynix, on HBM solutions for more than two years, aiming to advance 3D integrated circuit
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Episil Technologies Inc (漢磊) yesterday announced plans to jointly build an 8-inch fab to produce silicon carbide (SiC) chips through an equity acquisition deal. SiC chips offer higher efficiency and lower energy loss than pure silicon chips, and they are able to operate at higher temperatures. They have become crucial to the development of electric vehicles, artificial intelligence data centers, green energy storage and industrial devices. Vanguard, a contract chipmaker focused on making power management chips and driver ICs for displays, is to acquire a 13 percent stake in Episil for NT$2.48 billion (US$77.1 million).
RSS