Taiwan’s manufacturing sector remained sluggish for a second straight month last month due to an uneven recovery balancing strong high-tech players against a fragile old-economy sector, the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) said yesterday.
The composite index assessing the manufacturing sector’s fundamentals fell 0.68 points from a month earlier to 11.20 last month, the lowest level since February, when the index stood at 10.41, data compiled by the think tank, showed.
Last month’s index fell into the “yellow-blue” range of 10.5 to 13, signaling a slowdown.
Photo: CNA
The TIER uses a five-color system to assess economic activity in the sector, with red indicating overheating, yellow-red showing fast growth, green representing stable growth, yellow-blue signaling sluggish growth and blue signifying contraction.
Among the five factors in last month’s index, the subindices for purchases of raw materials and pricing fell 0.67 and 0.38 respectively from a month earlier.
The subindices for the other three factors — general business climate, demand and costs — rose 0.22, 0.11 and 0.04 respectively from a month earlier, the TIER said.
Exports from the old economy sector limited the growth of Taiwan’s industrial production, which led to manufacturers scaling back purchases of raw materials as a whole during the month, it said.
Citing a survey conducted last month, the TIER said 44.21 percent of respondents in the manufacturing sector said their business flashed a blue light, up slightly from 43.17 percent in a similar poll in September.
Another 26.25 percent of them said their operations flashed a yellow-blue light last month, up from 19.63 percent a month earlier, and 25.43 percent said their business flashed a green light, up from 23.76 percent in September.
The electronic component sector continued to benefit from robust global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications and high performance computing (HPC) devices, which pushed up exports of semiconductors to the US, ASEAN countries and India last month, the TIER said.
However, electronics component exports to Japan, China and Europe weakened last month, offsetting the strength in the entire sector, resulting in a green light, the TIER said.
On the other hand, the base metal sector flashed a yellow-blue light last month, as demand in the global steel market remained flat and low-priced steel products sent ripples through the market, the TIER said.
However, demand for stainless steel and select refined copper items from US and European markets gave some support to the industry.
The TIER said US president-elect Donald Trump is expected to influence the global economy when he returns to the White House in January, especially if he carries out threats to impose 25 percent tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico and raise tariffs on imports from China by 10 percent.
Trump’s proposed tariff hikes and a plan to deport illegal immigrants are expected to boost inflationary pressures and in turn affect the US Federal Reserve’s monetary policies, which could affect demand and Taiwan’s export- oriented manufacturing sector, the institute said.
NEW MARKET: The partnership opens up India to the Dutch company, which already has a strong hold in the semiconductor market of South Korea, Taiwan and China ASML Holding NV entered into a partnership agreement with Tata Electronics Pvt Ltd aimed at ramping up India’s goal to develop domestic chip-manufacturing capabilities. The Dutch company’s technology would help power Tata Electronics’ planned 300 millimeter (mm) semiconductor foundry in Gujarat, according to a joint statement from the two companies on Saturday. The signing of a memorandum of understanding coincides with a visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Netherlands, which is looking to deepen bilateral relations with New Delhi. ASML, whose top customers include Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co, makes lithography machines that can print
Tokyo Electron's Taiwan unit today said in a written response that it respects the judicial process, takes the court ruling seriously and would not appeal in the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) trade secrets case. Last month, a court fined the Taiwan unit of Japan's Tokyo Electron NT$150 million (US$4.74 million) in a case involving trade secrets related to TSMC's sensitive chip technology.
ROUGH RECORDS: Bonds in Japan, as well is in New Zealand, Australia and the US, are seeing the effects of a nervy market as stock exchanges across Asia edge down A deepening slump in Japanese government bonds added fuel to the selloff in global debt markets as rising oil prices stoked inflation fears and pushed yields to multi-decade highs. Japan’s 30-year yield yesterday surged as much as 20 basis points to the highest level since the tenor’s debut in 1999, before paring some of the move. Shorter-maturity Japanese debt was also under pressure, underscored by weak demand at a sale of five-year notes that offered a record-high coupon of 2 percent. Concerns over inflation and government spending rippling through markets including the US, Australia and New Zealand are being amplified in Japan,
Wall Street is licking its chops over an unprecedented slate of massive initial public offerings (IPOs) set to arrive in the coming months, beginning with Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) next month. That is expected to be followed by artificial intelligence (AI) rivals OpenAI and Anthropic PBC. The trio of mega listings, each eyeing valuations around US$1 trillion or more, constitutes a heady period of elevated risk and reward. SpaceX is targeting an IPO that would raise up to US$80 billion — about double the funds generated from all IPOs last year. OpenAI and Anthropic are eyeing IPOs raising US$60 billion. “We’re
RSS