Local manufacturers last month remained resilient thanks to inventory demand, despite poor market visibility, while service-oriented firms reported that business took a nosedive amid a COVID-19 outbreak, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday.
The official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) climbed 1.4 points to 52.7 last month, pushed up mainly by the subindices on delivery time and unfinished orders, as the virus disrupted shipments, the Taipei-based think tank said in a survey.
“Demand from the supply side, instead of end-market demand, accounted for the PMI increase, reflecting the predicament facing local manufacturers,” CIER president Chen Shi-kuan (陳思寬) told a news briefing in Taipei.
Many local firms are finding it difficult to deliver goods to their clients or obtain the materials needed to produce electronic components, because of travel restrictions and a shortage of labor in China, Chen said.
The gauge on delivery time rose from 57.1 to a record of 63.1, while the index on unfinished orders climbed from 52.9 to 55.9, the institute’s monthly survey showed, although almost all sectors saw a solid decline in new business and export orders.
The inventory gauge sank from 42.9 to 40.7, indicating that clients ran out of stock but hesitated to build up more, Chen said.
PMI values above 50 suggest an expansion, while readings below the threshold indicate a contraction.
Concerns over supply chain disruptions prompted some firms to frontload inventory, which might create correction pressure if the epidemic drags on, CIER said.
The subindex on new business orders grew from 55 to 56.9, with companies involved in supplying raw materials being the primary beneficiaries, it said.
The industrial output gauge improved from 41.7 to 48.6, CIER said.
The subindex on the business outlook for the next six months plunged from 63.7 to 36.8, the sharpest decline in recorded history as firms failed to see order visibility beyond April, CIER researcher Chen Shin-hui (陳馨蕙) said.
“COVID-19 poses an evolving risk for local manufacturers and there is no room for optimism,” Chen Shin-hui said.
Companies reliant on domestic demand fared worse in the non-manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (NMI), which tumbled at the fastest pace in recorded history from 55 to 40.4, ending 11 straight months of expansion, a separate survey by the CIER found.
Restaurants and hotels suffered the most, with a bleak NMI score of 16.1.
Service-oriented companies are struggling to survive supply chain disruptions and reduced consumer activity, the institute said.
Most sectors have a dim view of business given that the six-moth outlook was 26.6, a steep decline from 56.7 a month earlier, it said.
“Hopefully, relief measures provided by the government can help ease the pinch,” Chen Shi-kuan said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”