The industrial production index last month increased 10.29 percent year-on-year, rising for the ninth consecutive month as local manufacturers steadily increased production after the typhoons and working days returned to normal, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
Industrial production measures the change in the value of output produced by the local manufacturing, mining and utilities sectors.
Better-than-expected growth last month came as increases in manufacturing output and water supply more than offset a retreat in electricity and gas production, as well as mining output, the ministry said in a report.
Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA-EFE
Manufacturing output, which accounted for 95.39 percent of the industrial production index, also rose for a ninth consecutive month, increasing 10.73 percent year-on-year last month and beating the ministry’s growth estimate of 5.8 to 10.1 percent, the report said.
Among the six major industries in the manufacturing sector, four posted an annual output expansion last month, with the electronic components industry (mainly comprising semiconductors and flat panels) reporting the largest increase of 19.07 percent, it said.
The ministry attributed the industry’s strong showing — which was up for an 11th consecutive month — to growing demand for high-performance computing and artificial intelligence (AI) applications, which boosted foundry companies’ 12-inch wafer production and raised demand for motherboards, integrated circuits and wafer testing, and optoelectronic materials and components.
Meanwhile, output from the computer, electronic and optical products industry rose 7.98 percent, expanding for a 17th consecutive month, the ministry said. The industry continued to benefit from healthy shipments of servers, communications equipment, computer peripherals and components, amid rising demand for AI applications and cloud data services, it said.
As for traditional industries, output of base metals edged up 1.72 percent and that of machinery equipment increased 7.96 percent, while chemical materials and fertilizers decreased 2.82 percent, it said.
Automobile and auto parts output dropped 9.66 percent last month, down for the seventh straight month, due to a continued decline in the sales of small fuel-powered vehicles and reduced production of automotive transmission systems and other auto parts, it added.
In the first 11 months of the year, industrial production expanded 10.64 percent and manufacturing output grew 11.07 percent from the same period last year, the report said.
The ministry expects the growth momentum to remain solid this month, with manufacturing output expected to grow between 11.9 percent and 16.3 percent year-on-year.
It also forecast that manufacturing output for the fourth quarter would increase between 10.6 percent and 12.1 percent year-on-year, with full-year growth to fall to between 11.1 percent and 11.5 percent.
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