The nation’s industrial production index rose 18.65 percent year-on-year to 111.48 last month, driven by strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers and high-performance computing (HPC) applications, partially offset by weakness in traditional industries, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
The manufacturing production index, which comprises 94.63 percent of the industrial production index, increased 20.03 percent year-on-year to 112.11, marking the 16th consecutive month of growth, but missed the ministry’s forecast range of 115.4 to 119.4.
That lifted the industrial and manufacturing production indices by 21.44 percent and 22.84 percent year-on-year in the second quarter, the strongest growth since the second quarter of 2010, the ministry said.
Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA-EFE
In the first half of this year, the two indices rose 16.69 percent and 17.77 percent year-on-year respectively, hitting a record high for the period.
The manufacturing production index fell 7.24 percent last month from May, as manufacturers cited product transitions, portfolio changes and easing front-loading demand, although overall performance remained solid, Department of Statistics Director-General Huang Wei-jie (黃偉傑) told a news conference in Taipei.
The manufacturing production index this month is expected to rise 19.5 to 23.7 percent annually, the ministry said.
Electronic component production rose 22.38 percent year-on-year last month, driven by strong demand for AI and cloud data service applications, the ministry said.
The semiconductor production subindex increased 22.8 percent, thanks to robust demand for AI and HPC devices, boosting 12-inch wafer production, motherboard manufacturing, and chip design and testing.
Meanwhile, the subindex for flat panel and related components production rose 6.23 percent, extending growth from May, the ministry said.
Front-loading of medium-sized and small panels for industrial, automotive and medical use continued, boosting the monthly figure, Huang said.
Production of computers, electronic goods and optical components surged 81.95 percent, driven by strong AI demand, continued front-loading and camera upgrades by Japanese and South Korean smartphone makers, boosting output of servers, mobile cameras and industrial computers, the ministry said.
However, base metal production, mainly steel, fell 6.15 percent, while chemical materials and fertilizers dropped 1.94 percent, due to weak demand and oversupply from China, it said.
Machinery equipment production rose 6.3 percent, driven by demand for semiconductor production equipment.
Following US President Donald Trump’s announcement to cut tariffs on some Japanese goods to 15 from 25 percent, some upstream machinery equipment makers supplying components to Japan expressed optimism, expecting stronger Japanese output to boost their sales, Huang said, adding that the situation would remain unclear until more countries’ rates are finalized.
Vehicle output fell 3.38 percent year-on-year due to weak demand for gasoline-powered small sedans and trucks, although the decline narrowed from last month, supported by new hybrid vehicle launches, Huang said.
When Lika Megreladze was a child, life in her native western Georgian region of Guria revolved around tea. Her mother worked for decades as a scientist at the Soviet Union’s Institute of Tea and Subtropical Crops in the village of Anaseuli, Georgia, perfecting cultivation methods for a Georgian tea industry that supplied the bulk of the vast communist state’s brews. “When I was a child, this was only my mum’s workplace. Only later I realized that it was something big,” she said. Now, the institute lies abandoned. Yellowed papers are strewn around its decaying corridors, and a statue of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin
UNIFYING OPPOSITION: Numerous companies have registered complaints over the potential levies, bringing together rival automakers in voicing their reservations US President Donald Trump is readying plans for industry-specific tariffs to kick in alongside his country-by-country duties in two weeks, ramping up his push to reshape the US’ standing in the global trading system by penalizing purchases from abroad. Administration officials could release details of Trump’s planned 50 percent duty on copper in the days before they are set to take effect on Friday next week, a person familiar with the matter said. That is the same date Trump’s “reciprocal” levies on products from more than 100 nations are slated to begin. Trump on Tuesday said that he is likely to impose tariffs
HELPING HAND: Approving the sale of H20s could give China the edge it needs to capture market share and become the global standard, a US representative said The US President Donald Trump administration’s decision allowing Nvidia Corp to resume shipments of its H20 artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China risks bolstering Beijing’s military capabilities and expanding its capacity to compete with the US, the head of the US House Select Committee on Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party said. “The H20, which is a cost-effective and powerful AI inference chip, far surpasses China’s indigenous capability and would therefore provide a substantial increase to China’s AI development,” committee chairman John Moolenaar, a Michigan Republican, said on Friday in a letter to US Secretary of
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) market value closed above US$1 trillion for the first time in Taipei last week, with a raised sales forecast driven by robust artificial intelligence (AI) demand. TSMC saw its Taiwanese shares climb to a record high on Friday, a near 50 percent rise from an April low. That has made it the first Asian stock worth more than US$1 trillion, since PetroChina Co (中國石油天然氣) briefly reached the milestone in 2007. As investors turned calm after their aggressive buying on Friday, amid optimism over the chipmaker’s business outlook, TSMC lost 0.43 percent to close at NT$1,150