Electricity use among heavy users last month rose 1.82 percent from a year earlier, as power consumption by Taiwanese semiconductor firms climbed to a new high due to global demand for high-performance computing and artificial intelligence (AI) devices, the Taiwan Research Institute (TRI, 台灣綜合研究院) said yesterday.
The Electricity Prosperity Index, which the New Taipei City-based research body uses to gauge the health of the industrial and service sectors, was “yellow-red” for a second consecutive month, as the nation’s economy is booming.
The institute forecast GDP growth of 4.5 percent for last month and said it expects that momentum to continue for the rest of this year.
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Power usage among local manufacturers, which consume 56 to 58 percent of the nation’s power supply, increased 2.44 percent, as tech firms are benefiting from enthusiasm for AI and non-tech sectors emerged from a trough, a TRI researcher said by telephone.
In contrast, the service sector consumes 18 to 19 percent of the power supply, while average households use about 18 percent, the researcher said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, whose clients include Apple Inc, Nvidia Corp, Intel Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc and other technology giants, is expanding capacity to meet customer demand, after it ran its 3-nanometer and 5-nanometer facilities at almost full capacity, the researcher said.
TSMC’s electricity use grew 5.8 percent from a year earlier and firms in its supply chain, such as providers of silicon wafers and printed circuit boards, also used more power, the TRI said.
The uptrend would continue in the short term, as there was a 6.3 percent increase in export orders for electronic products last month, which is an indicator of actual exports over the following one to three months, the institute said.
Power consumption by computer and optical device makers increased 7.4 percent, driven by high-performance computing, 5G and AI-linked applications, even though order visibility for notebook computers and smartphones appeared slower than expected, the TRI said.
Electricity consumption by makers of chemical and steel products rose 5.4 percent and 1.5 percent respectively, as improved inventory demand pushed up production and selling prices, it said.
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