Taiwan’s manufacturing sector roared ahead last month, posting its most vigorous improvement in more than four years, as buoyant global demand for semiconductors and artificial intelligence (AI) applications fueled sharp gains in output and new orders, S&P Global said in a report yesterday.
The S&P Global Taiwan Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) climbed to 55.2 from 51.7 in January, extending the expansion streak to a third consecutive month.
The latest reading marked the most pronounced upturn since December 2021, signaling a broad-based improvement in operating conditions across the sector.
Photo courtesy of Techman Robot Inc
“With demand for semiconductors and AI-related technology ramping up worldwide, the momentum is likely to support the sector’s business in the months ahead,” S&P Global Market Intelligence economics associate director Annabel Fiddes said in a statement.
The improvement was underpinned by a surge in new business, with total new orders increasing at the fastest pace since July 2021, supported by firmer demand at home and abroad, S&P Global said.
Export orders expanded at the quickest rate in just over four years, with manufacturers reporting stronger sales to Europe, Japan, China and the US, it said.
Robust orders prompted firms to ramp up production at the sharpest pace since the middle of 2021.
To cope with rising workloads, companies accelerated purchasing activity, which recorded its steepest increase since November 2021, it said.
Input inventories rose at the fastest rate in four years, while stocks of finished goods expanded at the quickest pace since May 2011, reflecting growing confidence that demand would be sustained in the near term, it said.
However, the rapid rebound in activity placed fresh strain on supply chains.
Supplier delivery times lengthened at a faster pace last month, as vendors struggled to keep up with stronger demand and were reported to hold insufficient inventories, S&P Global said.
Price pressures also intensified. Average input costs climbed at the sharpest pace since April 2022 amid widespread increases in raw material prices, it said.
Manufacturers passed on part of the burden to customers, raising selling prices for a fifth consecutive month at the fastest rate since the middle of 2022, it said.
Despite buoyant output and orders, hiring remained measured. Employment rose only modestly, although the increase was the strongest in nearly three-and-a-half years, it said.
As demand outpaced workforce growth, backlogs accumulated at the quickest rate since August 2021, it added.
Manufacturers grew more optimistic about the 12-month outlook, with sentiment reaching its highest level since May 2024, buoyed by expectations that global demand — particularly for semiconductors and AI-related technologies — would remain supportive, S&P Global said.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
POWER BUILDUP: Powered by Nvidia’s B200 Blackwell chips, the data center would support MediaTek’s computing power demand and business growth, the company said Smartphone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday launched a new artificial intelligence (AI) data center with a maximum capacity of 45 megawatts to meet its rising demand for computing power required to develop new advanced chips for AI applications. The company has completed the first-phase computing power buildup at the data center in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), providing 15 megawatts of capacity to support its research and development (R&D) capabilities, despite an industrywide shortage of key components, MediaTek said. Supply constraints have plagued a wide range of key components, including memory chips, solid-state drives, power supply units and central
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
RSS