Sales in the retail sector last month declined by 0.5 percent from a year earlier to NT$410.9 billion (US$12.65 billion), compared with an annual increase of 3.2 percent the previous month, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
Last month’s decline missed the ministry’s estimate of growth between 1.7 percent and 4.7 percent for retail sales and ended 37 consecutive months of increases on an annual basis.
The ministry attributed the decline mainly to the landfall of two typhoons, which resulted in annual declines of 7.9 percent in sales at automobile vendors, 3.9 percent at department stores and 2.1 percent at apparel shops, while falling oil prices led sales at gas stations to drop 10.2 percent from a year earlier.
Photo: CNA
A high comparison base last year was also a factor behind the annual fall in retail sales last month, it added.
However, cumulative sales in the first 10 months of the year totaled NT$3.98 trillion, up 2.6 percent from a year earlier and marking the highest level for the same period on record, the ministry said.
For this month, the ministry expects sales in the sector to return to annual growth thanks to the Double 11 Singles’ Day online shopping festival, seasonal demand for clothing and related products and businesses’ promotional offers in conjunction with international events, it said in a report.
Meanwhile, sales in the food and beverage sector fell 1.8 percent year-on-year to NT$81.9 billion last month, also missing the ministry’s expectation of an increase between 0.4 percent and 3.4 percent on an annual basis.
The lower-than-expected showing came as restaurants sales declined 3.3 percent from a year earlier, affected by Typhoon Krathon earlier last month and Typhoon Kong-rey at the end of the month, while the number of holidays in the month was fewer than that in the same month last year, the ministry said.
In the first 10 months of this year, food and beverage sales rose 3.1 percent year-on-year to NT$855.8 billion, the highest ever for the same period, it said.
The ministry expects the sector’s sales to register annual growth this month as a drop in temperatures would drive demand for warm food and beverages, and as store operators launch special meals and promotions in conjunction with baseball games.
Overall, the ministry forecast retail sales to be between NT$425.8 billion and NT$438.7 billion this month, representing a decline of 1 percent to an increase of 2 percent on an annual basis, while food and beverage sales are projected to climb 0.5 percent to 3.5 percent year-on-year to between NT$80.1 billion and NT$82.4 billion, it added.
AI SERVER DEMAND: ‘Overall industry demand continues to outpace supply and we are expanding capacity to meet it,’ the company’s chief executive officer said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported that net profit last quarter rose 27 percent from the same quarter last year on the back of demand for cloud services and high-performance computing products. Net profit surged to NT$44.36 billion (US$1.48 billion) from NT$35.04 billion a year earlier. On a quarterly basis, net profit grew 5 percent from NT$42.1 billion. Earnings per share expanded to NT$3.19 from NT$2.53 a year earlier and NT$3.03 in the first quarter. However, a sharp appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar since early May has weighed on the company’s performance, Hon Hai chief financial officer David Huang (黃德才)
The Taiwan Automation Intelligence and Robot Show, which is to be held from Wednesday to Saturday at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center, would showcase the latest in artificial intelligence (AI)-driven robotics and automation technologies, the organizer said yesterday. The event would highlight applications in smart manufacturing, as well as information and communications technology, the Taiwan Automation Intelligence and Robotics Association said. More than 1,000 companies are to display innovations in semiconductors, electromechanics, industrial automation and intelligent manufacturing, it said in a news release. Visitors can explore automated guided vehicles, 3D machine vision systems and AI-powered applications at the show, along
FORECAST: The greater computing power needed for emerging AI applications has driven higher demand for advanced semiconductors worldwide, TSMC said The government-supported Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) has raised its forecast for this year’s growth in the output value of Taiwan’s semiconductor industry to above 22 percent on strong global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. In its latest IEK Current Quarterly Model report, the institute said the local semiconductor industry would have output of NT$6.5 trillion (US$216.6 billion) this year, up 22.2 percent from a year earlier, an upward revision from a 19.1 percent increase estimate made in May. The strong showing of the local semiconductor industry largely reflected the stronger-than-expected performance of the integrated circuit (IC) manufacturing segment,
NVIDIA FACTOR: Shipments of AI servers powered by GB300 chips would undergo pilot runs this quarter, with small shipments possibly starting next quarter, it said Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), which supplies artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp chips, yesterday said that AI servers are on track to account for 70 percent of its total server revenue this year, thanks to improved yield rates and a better learning curve for Nvidia’s GB300 chip-based servers. AI servers accounted for more than 60 percent of its total server revenue in the first half of this year, Quanta chief financial officer Elton Yang (楊俊烈) told an online conference. The company’s latest production learning curve of the AI servers powered by Nvidia’s GB200 chips has improved after overcoming key component
RSS