More than half of local manufacturers said last month they were optimistic about the nation’s economic growth over the next half year, a survey conducted by a Taipei-based think tank showed yesterday.
The number of manufacturers expecting a bullish business climate over the next six months climbed to 50.8 percent last month, its highest since March 2007, the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER, 台經院) survey showed.
The figure contrasted with a revised 44.6 percent recorded in January and exceeded 50 percent for the first time in three years, a clear indication that the manufacturing sector has become more confident about near-term economic growth, TIER said.
“Those with a pessimistic outlook for the economy [over the next six months] slid to 6.9 percent last month, compared with a revised 8.8 percent recorded in January,” TIER president David Hong (洪德生) told a press briefing.
Although the next half year will be slow for the manufacturing sector, the global economy has shown signs of recovery that will shore up demand for downstream end-products, Hong said.
However, manufacturers who remained upbeat about the current economy dropped 11.8 percentage points last month, while those with a pessimist outlook rose 4.8 percentage points, the survey showed.
“The manufacturing sector last month perhaps did not perform all that well,” Chen Miao (陳淼), director of TIER’s macroeconomic forecasting center, told the Taipei Times.
Chen said that retail businesses in the service sector remained bullish last month because of the Lunar New year holiday, which is usually the best time for sales in the service sector.
Investment in financial products and personal consumption are expected to increase over the next six months as the economy continues to recover, Chen said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday obtained the government’s approval to inject an additional US$7.5 billion into its US subsidiary, the Department of Investment Review said in a statement. The department approved TSMC’s application of investing in TSMC Arizona Corp, which is engaged in the manufacturing, sales, testing and design of IC and other semiconductor devices, it said. The latest capital injection follows a US$5 billion investment for TSMC Arizona approved in June. The chipmaker has broken ground on two advanced fabs in Arizona with aggregated investments approved by the department totaling US$24 billion thus far. According to TSMC, the first Arizona
The lethal hack of Hezbollah’s Asian-branded pagers and walkie-talkies has sparked an intense search for the devices’ path, revealing a murky market for older technologies where buyers might have few assurances about what they are getting. While supply chains and distribution channels for higher-margin and newer products are tightly managed, that is not the case for older electronics from Asia where counterfeiting, surplus inventories and complex contract manufacturing deals can sometimes make it impossible to identify the source of a product, analysts and consultants say. The response from the companies at the center of the booby-trapped gadgets that killed 37
FRIENDLY TAKEOVER: While Qualcomm Inc’s proposal to buy some or all of Intel raises the prospect of other competitors, Broadcom Inc is staying on the sidelines Qualcomm Inc has approached Intel Corp to discuss a potential acquisition of the struggling chipmaker, people with knowledge of the matter said, raising the prospect of one of the biggest-ever merger and acquisition deals. California-based Qualcomm proposed a friendly takeover for Intel in recent days, said the sources, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information. The proposal is for all of the chipmaker, although Qualcomm has not ruled out buying some parts of Intel and selling off others. It is uncertain whether the initial approach would lead to an agreement and any deal is likely to come under close antitrust scrutiny
SECURITY CONCERNS: The proposed ban on Chinese autonomous vehicle software and hardware would go into effect with the 2027 and 2030 model years respectively The US Department of Commerce today is expected to propose prohibiting Chinese software and hardware in connected and autonomous vehicles on US roads due to national security concerns, two sources said. US President Joe Biden’s administration has raised concerns about the collection of data by Chinese companies on US drivers and infrastructure as well as the potential foreign manipulation of vehicles connected to the Internet and navigation systems. The proposed regulation would ban the import and sale of vehicles from China with key communications or automated driving system software or hardware, said the two sources, who declined to be identified because the