The nation’s industrial production index expanded 1.89 percent year-on-year to 108.48 last month, ending 12 months of annual decline, mainly supported by growing demand for electronics components, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
“The monthly results beat the ministry’s previous estimate of a 2 percent annual decline, thanks to increased production of high-end semiconductor products,” Department of Statistics Deputy Director-General Yang Kuei-hsien (楊貴顯) told a news conference.
The industrial production gauge measures production in five major industries: manufacturing, mining and quarrying, electricity and gas supply, water supply and architectural engineering.
Photo: Lin Chu-han, Taipei Times
The latest results show that the manufacturing sector, which accounts for more than 90 percent of the total output, surged 1.93 percent last month from a year earlier. Within the manufacturing sector, the output of the electronic components industry increased 4.92 percent annually last month, swinging back to positive territory for the first time in the past 12 months, data showed.
Yang attributed the growth momentum in the electronic components industry to better-than-expected demand for communications chips from emerging economies and North American markets.
Increasing orders for touch panels and integrated-circuit substrates also lent support to the production of the electronics components industry last month, he added.
The computer, electronic goods and optical components industries also witnessed the first annual growth in production in the past 12 months with a 2.25 percent increase last month, fueled by demand for USB drives and launches of virtual reality products and wearable “smart” devices, Yang said.
Output of base metals grew 3.53 percent annually last month, but petrochemical industry output contracted by 4.36 percent, while machinery equipment production continued to linger in the negative zone with a 12.64 percent annual decline, data showed.
Yang said the industrial production index this month would grow mildly at 1 percent year-on-year, on strong momentum in the semiconductor industry and rising demand for steel products.
However, Yang said it is still too early to say whether the nation’s industrial production output could maintain the growth momentum throughout the rest of this year, as intensified competition from China, South Korea and Japan could affect orders at Taiwanese manufacturers.
The ministry also released domestic trade figures for last month yesterday.
The wholesale sector saw revenue fall 2.6 percent year-on-year to NT$777.7 billion (US$24.16 billion) last month, due to slow sales of information technology products and continued shrinking orders from Japan, while the retail sector’s revenue grew 0.9 percent to NT$334.9 billion on strong sales of cars and motorcycles due to government subsidies.
The revenue from the restaurant sector expanded 0.8 percent annually to NT$37.1 billion last month, data showed.
For this month, the ministry forecast that wholesale sector sales would continue to contract on a yearly basis, while retail sector sales could be flattish, Yang said.
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