Industrial production in the third quarter rose 12.25 percent from a year earlier on strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips and servers, and camera lenses used in new iPhones, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
Manufacturing production, the pillar of the nation’s industrial production, increased 13 percent annually last quarter, matching the ministry’s forecast of double-digit percentage growth.
“The fourth quarter should be better than the third quarter based on our current observations, if the traditional segments do not become a drag,” Department of Statistics Deputy Director-General Huang Wei-jie (黃偉傑) said by telephone yesterday.
Photo: RITCHIE B. TONGO, EPA-EFE
“The manufacturing sector remains resilient, but it showed an uneven recovery last month with traditional segments struggling to emerge from a slump,” Huang said.
Shipments of AI servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s new GB200 chips would be a major driving force of manufacturing production this quarter, the ministry said.
Earlier this month, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) said that it planned to ship the first AI servers powered by GB200 in December.
Manufacturing production last month grew 11.22 percent annually and is expected to grow from 7.4 to 11.8 percent this month, Huang said.
On a sequential basis, it would contract 0.7 percent or grow 3.4 percent, he added.
Last month, production in the electronic components industry soared 19.03 percent annually due to high demand for AI and high-performance computing devices, marking the best September performance in history, with the semiconductor industry posting output growth of 23.77 percent but the flat panel industry reporting a decline of 8.43 percent, ministry data showed.
The production of the computer and optoelectronics industry surged 32.41 percent, also the best September performance on record, thanks to robust demand for cloud-based data centers, camera lenses used in smartphones and semiconductor inspection tools, the data showed.
The machinery equipment industry's production rose 1.08 percent on the back of increased demand for semiconductor manufacturing equipment and related components, but machine tool production continued to slump, the ministry said.
The production of base metals, mostly steel, dipped for a third consecutive month at an annual pace of 0.39 percent, that of the chemical materials and fertilizer industry fell 2.34 percent, and the production of vehicles and auto parts sank 15.28 percent, it said.
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