Business confidence last month moved up slightly for all sectors, as business visibility brightened a bit, but the low season limited the pace of improvement, the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER, 台灣經濟研究院) said yesterday.
The sentiment gauge for local manufacturers printed 98.67, up 0.35 points from a revised 98.32 in March, meriting a neutral interpretation given the insignificant change, TIER said.
The number of firms that are positive about their business prospects in the coming six months shed 5.5 percentage points from 40.1 percent to 34.6 percent, while firms with a negative outlook declined 2.5 percentage points from 12.5 percent to 10 percent, and the remaining firms expected no change, it said.
Photo: CNA
Taiwanese tech firms have benefited from strong demand for electronics used in artificial intelligence, but other sectors have not come out of a global slowdown induced by sticky inflation and tight monetary policy, TIER said.
Manufacturers of electrical and machinery equipment see favorable times ahead, but suppliers of base metal and chemical products expect things to remain the same, it said.
Healthy economic data in the US would prompt the US Federal Reserve to hold onto current restrictive monetary policy and curb demand for commodities, TIER said, adding that persisting geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and Europe are increasing economic uncertainty.
That explained why shipments of information communication technology products were the only bright spot last month, with a growth of more than twofold, while all other categories faltered into contraction, the Ministry of Finance said earlier this month.
The confidence of service providers edged up 0.65 points from a revised 95.05 to 95.7, as people turned cautious after the April 3 earthquake in Hualien, which measured a 7.2 on the Richter scale, and food safety incidents, TIER said.
Fast and deep retreats at the local bourse in the middle of last month weighed on the wealth effect, it said. The conservative patch did not last long, as the TAIEX bounced back late that month and has repeatedly hit record highs this month.
Retailers, hospitality providers, banks, life insurers and securities houses are looking at a business upturn going forward, thanks to the advent of the summer vacation, but wholesale firms believe things would likely be steady, TIER said.
The confidence reading for construction firms and real-estate brokers gained 4.24 points from 103.15 to 107.39, ending two months of declines, it said.
The uptick had to do with an ongoing pickup in housing transactions and the government’s implementation of a public works budget, it added.
The new administration has pledged to speed up reconstruction in Hualien and would introduce programs to shore up strategic industrial sectors, which would be favorable for construction and real-estate firms, TIER said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) would not produce its most advanced technologies in the US next year, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. Kuo made the comment during an appearance at the legislature, hours after the chipmaker announced that it would invest an additional US$100 billion to expand its manufacturing operations in the US. Asked by Taiwan People’s Party Legislator-at-large Chang Chi-kai (張啟楷) if TSMC would allow its most advanced technologies, the yet-to-be-released 2-nanometer and 1.6-nanometer processes, to go to the US in the near term, Kuo denied it. TSMC recently opened its first US factory, which produces 4-nanometer
PROTECTION: The investigation, which takes aim at exporters such as Canada, Germany and Brazil, came days after Trump unveiled tariff hikes on steel and aluminum products US President Donald Trump on Saturday ordered a probe into potential tariffs on lumber imports — a move threatening to stoke trade tensions — while also pushing for a domestic supply boost. Trump signed an executive order instructing US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick to begin an investigation “to determine the effects on the national security of imports of timber, lumber and their derivative products.” The study might result in new tariffs being imposed, which would pile on top of existing levies. The investigation takes aim at exporters like Canada, Germany and Brazil, with White House officials earlier accusing these economies of
Teleperformance SE, the largest call-center operator in the world, is rolling out an artificial intelligence (AI) system that softens English-speaking Indian workers’ accents in real time in a move the company claims would make them more understandable. The technology, called accent translation, coupled with background noise cancelation, is being deployed in call centers in India, where workers provide customer support to some of Teleperformance’s international clients. The company provides outsourced customer support and content moderation to global companies including Apple Inc, ByteDance Ltd’s (字節跳動) TikTok and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. “When you have an Indian agent on the line, sometimes it’s hard
PROBE CONTINUES: Those accused falsely represented that the chips would not be transferred to a person other than the authorized end users, court papers said Singapore charged three men with fraud in a case local media have linked to the movement of Nvidia’s advanced chips from the city-state to Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) firm DeepSeek (深度求索). The US is investigating if DeepSeek, the Chinese company whose AI model’s performance rocked the tech world in January, has been using US chips that are not allowed to be shipped to China, Reuters reported earlier. The Singapore case is part of a broader police investigation of 22 individuals and companies suspected of false representation, amid concerns that organized AI chip smuggling to China has been tracked out of nations such
RSS