Taiwan’s official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month shed 1.5 points to 52.2, staying in expansion mode for the third straight month, although uncertainty linked to the US presidential race caused a stir, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday.
The PMI published yesterday by S&P Global also showed that Taiwan’s factory activity continued to expand last month, falling to 52.9 from 53.2 in June.
PMI data seek to measure the health of the manufacturing industry with values of 50 and higher suggesting expansion and points below the neutral threshold indicating contraction.
Photo: CNA.
“Things remain positive overall, but recent remarks by US presidential candidates revived concern over tariff hikes,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said.
Taiwanese firms turned from feeling upbeat to cautious after former US president and Republican Party presidential nominee Donald Trump said in an interview last month that Taiwan “took all of [the US’] chip business” and should pay the US for defense. Trump has also pledged to raise tariffs on imports to address what he calls unfair trade practices.
The subindex on new business orders weakened 5.3 points to 53.9, while the industrial production subindex lost 2.5 points to also reach 53.9, the Taipei-based think tank said, citing a monthly survey.
Tech firms generally saw their business pick up, but firms involved in the supply of transportation tools, basic raw materials and machinery equipment reported business decreases, the institute said.
Firms conservatively increased their payroll and sought mostly to meet demand by enhancing their operating efficiency, it said, explaining why the measure on employment added a tiny 0.7 points to 51.9.
The subindex on inventory lost 0.4 points to 49, while clients’ inventory gained 1.5 points to 44.6, consistent with a cautious approach, the survey showed.
The gauge on raw material prices dropped 3.2 points to 57.3, remaining elevated and a concern for margin pressure, the institute said.
The six-month outlook declined 4.2 points to 55, as the US presidential election affected corporate confidence while the high sales season draws near, it said.
The business reading on non-manufacturing sectors fell 1.3 points to 57.3, expanding for 21 consecutive months, with all service-oriented sectors faring well, the institute said in a separate survey.
Private consumption held strong even though the TAIEX pulled back and the central bank tightened credit controls, Lien said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) would not produce its most advanced technologies in the US next year, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. Kuo made the comment during an appearance at the legislature, hours after the chipmaker announced that it would invest an additional US$100 billion to expand its manufacturing operations in the US. Asked by Taiwan People’s Party Legislator-at-large Chang Chi-kai (張啟楷) if TSMC would allow its most advanced technologies, the yet-to-be-released 2-nanometer and 1.6-nanometer processes, to go to the US in the near term, Kuo denied it. TSMC recently opened its first US factory, which produces 4-nanometer
PROTECTION: The investigation, which takes aim at exporters such as Canada, Germany and Brazil, came days after Trump unveiled tariff hikes on steel and aluminum products US President Donald Trump on Saturday ordered a probe into potential tariffs on lumber imports — a move threatening to stoke trade tensions — while also pushing for a domestic supply boost. Trump signed an executive order instructing US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick to begin an investigation “to determine the effects on the national security of imports of timber, lumber and their derivative products.” The study might result in new tariffs being imposed, which would pile on top of existing levies. The investigation takes aim at exporters like Canada, Germany and Brazil, with White House officials earlier accusing these economies of
Teleperformance SE, the largest call-center operator in the world, is rolling out an artificial intelligence (AI) system that softens English-speaking Indian workers’ accents in real time in a move the company claims would make them more understandable. The technology, called accent translation, coupled with background noise cancelation, is being deployed in call centers in India, where workers provide customer support to some of Teleperformance’s international clients. The company provides outsourced customer support and content moderation to global companies including Apple Inc, ByteDance Ltd’s (字節跳動) TikTok and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. “When you have an Indian agent on the line, sometimes it’s hard
PROBE CONTINUES: Those accused falsely represented that the chips would not be transferred to a person other than the authorized end users, court papers said Singapore charged three men with fraud in a case local media have linked to the movement of Nvidia’s advanced chips from the city-state to Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) firm DeepSeek (深度求索). The US is investigating if DeepSeek, the Chinese company whose AI model’s performance rocked the tech world in January, has been using US chips that are not allowed to be shipped to China, Reuters reported earlier. The Singapore case is part of a broader police investigation of 22 individuals and companies suspected of false representation, amid concerns that organized AI chip smuggling to China has been tracked out of nations such
RSS