Taiwan’s official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month shed 1.5 points to 52.2, staying in expansion mode for the third straight month, although uncertainty linked to the US presidential race caused a stir, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday.
The PMI published yesterday by S&P Global also showed that Taiwan’s factory activity continued to expand last month, falling to 52.9 from 53.2 in June.
PMI data seek to measure the health of the manufacturing industry with values of 50 and higher suggesting expansion and points below the neutral threshold indicating contraction.
Photo: CNA.
“Things remain positive overall, but recent remarks by US presidential candidates revived concern over tariff hikes,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said.
Taiwanese firms turned from feeling upbeat to cautious after former US president and Republican Party presidential nominee Donald Trump said in an interview last month that Taiwan “took all of [the US’] chip business” and should pay the US for defense. Trump has also pledged to raise tariffs on imports to address what he calls unfair trade practices.
The subindex on new business orders weakened 5.3 points to 53.9, while the industrial production subindex lost 2.5 points to also reach 53.9, the Taipei-based think tank said, citing a monthly survey.
Tech firms generally saw their business pick up, but firms involved in the supply of transportation tools, basic raw materials and machinery equipment reported business decreases, the institute said.
Firms conservatively increased their payroll and sought mostly to meet demand by enhancing their operating efficiency, it said, explaining why the measure on employment added a tiny 0.7 points to 51.9.
The subindex on inventory lost 0.4 points to 49, while clients’ inventory gained 1.5 points to 44.6, consistent with a cautious approach, the survey showed.
The gauge on raw material prices dropped 3.2 points to 57.3, remaining elevated and a concern for margin pressure, the institute said.
The six-month outlook declined 4.2 points to 55, as the US presidential election affected corporate confidence while the high sales season draws near, it said.
The business reading on non-manufacturing sectors fell 1.3 points to 57.3, expanding for 21 consecutive months, with all service-oriented sectors faring well, the institute said in a separate survey.
Private consumption held strong even though the TAIEX pulled back and the central bank tightened credit controls, Lien said.
CHIP RACE: Three years of overbroad export controls drove foreign competitors to pursue their own AI chips, and ‘cost US taxpayers billions of dollars,’ Nvidia said China has figured out the US strategy for allowing it to buy Nvidia Corp’s H200s and is rejecting the artificial intelligence (AI) chip in favor of domestically developed semiconductors, White House AI adviser David Sacks said, citing news reports. US President Donald Trump on Monday said that he would allow shipments of Nvidia’s H200 chips to China, part of an administration effort backed by Sacks to challenge Chinese tech champions such as Huawei Technologies Co (華為) by bringing US competition to their home market. On Friday, Sacks signaled that he was uncertain about whether that approach would work. “They’re rejecting our chips,” Sacks
NATIONAL SECURITY: Intel’s testing of ACM tools despite US government control ‘highlights egregious gaps in US technology protection policies,’ a former official said Chipmaker Intel Corp has tested chipmaking tools this year from a toolmaker with deep roots in China and two overseas units that were targeted by US sanctions, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter. Intel, which fended off calls for its CEO’s resignation from US President Donald Trump in August over his alleged ties to China, got the tools from ACM Research Inc, a Fremont, California-based producer of chipmaking equipment. Two of ACM’s units, based in Shanghai and South Korea, were among a number of firms barred last year from receiving US technology over claims they have
It is challenging to build infrastructure in much of Europe. Constrained budgets and polarized politics tend to undermine long-term projects, forcing officials to react to emergencies rather than plan for the future. Not in Austria. Today, the country is to officially open its Koralmbahn tunnel, the 5.9 billion euro (US$6.9 billion) centerpiece of a groundbreaking new railway that will eventually run from Poland’s Baltic coast to the Adriatic Sea, transforming travel within Austria and positioning the Alpine nation at the forefront of logistics in Europe. “It is Austria’s biggest socio-economic experiment in over a century,” said Eric Kirschner, an economist at Graz-based Joanneum
OPTION: Uber said it could provide higher pay for batch trips, if incentives for batching is not removed entirely, as the latter would force it to pass on the costs to consumers Uber Technologies Inc yesterday warned that proposed restrictions on batching orders and minimum wages could prompt a NT$20 delivery fee increase in Taiwan, as lower efficiency would drive up costs. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi made the remarks yesterday during his visit to Taiwan. He is on a multileg trip to the region, which includes stops in South Korea and Japan. His visit coincided the release last month of the Ministry of Labor’s draft bill on the delivery sector, which aims to safeguard delivery workers’ rights and improve their welfare. The ministry set the minimum pay for local food delivery drivers at
RSS