Taiwan’s official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month lost 0.6 points to 50.8, as some firms saw an increase in rush orders, but overall visibility remained foggy, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday.
“The end-market demand proved murky though December is usually the high sales season for technology products,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said.
Firms generally stood by a wait-and-see attitude before US president-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated on Jan. 20 and makes clear his trade policy, Lien said.
Photo: RITCHIE B. TONGO, EPA-EFE
PMI data seek to capture the health of the manufacturing industry with points of more than 50 indicate expansion and values below 50 suggest contraction.
The reading on new orders shed 4.6 points to 50.9, as business picked up at most sectors except firms that provide chemical and biotechnology products as well as raw materials, the institute said.
CIER researcher Chen Shin-hui (陳馨蕙) said suppliers of consumer electronics benefitted from rush orders, but noted that rush orders were not broad-based — limited mostly to laptop manufacturers for the US market.
Orders for transportation tools also elevated, but the advance likely had to do with seasonal inventory replenishment rather than a market recovery, Chen said.
Despite the advent of the Lunar New Year, firms remained cautious on concerns of Trump’s tariff policy and China’s stimulus measures, she said.
The measure on inventories fell 1.2 points to 47.4, and the reading on customer inventory held unchanged at 44.5, suggesting conservative practices, the institute said. The gauge on industrial output dropped 2.4 points to 52.1, but the sub-index on employment gained 1.2 points to 51.1, it said.
Firms are also dejected about their business prospects, given that the six-month outlook printed 46.1, down 1.8 points from one month earlier, the institute said.
“Jitters about tariff hikes prevail though the artificial intelligence boom would sustain and benefit Taiwanese firms,” Lien said.
In related developments, the non-manufacturing index last month grew 1.9 points to 56.5, as the gaming industry saw sales improve on the beginning of the winter vacation for universities and colleges, the hospitality facilities received support from year-end parties thrown by companies, and shipping firms benefited from higher freight rates on the back of rerouting needs, the institute said.
Most service providers expect business to thrive over the next six months, although retailers and real-estate brokers disagreed, as the holiday season would soon be over and Taiwanese like to spend money abroad, it said.
COMPETITION: AMD, Intel and Qualcomm are unveiling new laptop and desktop parts in Las Vegas, arguing their technologies provide the best performance for AI workloads Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD), the second-biggest maker of computer processors, said its chips are to be used by Dell Technologies Inc for the first time in PCs sold to businesses. The chipmaker unveiled new processors it says would make AMD-based PCs the best at running artificial intelligence (AI) software. Dell has decided to use the chips in some of its computers aimed at business customers, AMD executives said at CES in Las Vegas on Monday. Dell’s embrace of AMD for corporate PCs — it already uses the chipmaker for consumer devices — is another blow for Intel Corp as the company
STIMULUS PLANS: An official said that China would increase funding from special treasury bonds and expand another program focused on key strategic sectors China is to sharply increase funding from ultra-long treasury bonds this year to spur business investment and consumer-boosting initiatives, a state planner official told a news conference yesterday, as Beijing cranks up fiscal stimulus to revitalize its faltering economy. Special treasury bonds would be used to fund large-scale equipment upgrades and consumer goods trade-ins, said Yuan Da (袁達), deputy secretary-general of the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission. “The size of ultra-long special government bond funds will be sharply increased this year to intensify and expand the implementation of the two new initiatives,” Yuan said. Under the program launched last year, consumers can
TECH PULL: Electronics heavyweights also attracted strong buying ahead of the CES, analysts said. Meanwhile, Asian markets were mixed amid Trump’s incoming presidency Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) shares yesterday closed at a new high in the wake of a rally among tech stocks on Wall Street on Friday, moving the TAIEX sharply higher by more than 600 points. TSMC, the most heavily weighted stock in the TAIEX, rose 4.65 percent to close at a new high of NT$1,125, boosting its market value to NT$29.17 trillion (US$888 billion) and contributing about 400 points to the TAIEX’s rise. The TAIEX ended up 639.41 points, or 2.79 percent, at 23,547.71. Turnover totaled NT$406.478 billion, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. The surge in TSMC follows a positive performance
MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday said it is teaming up with Nvidia Corp to develop a new chip for artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputers that uses architecture licensed from Arm Holdings PLC. The new product is targeting AI researchers, data scientists and students rather than the mass PC market, the company said. The announcement comes as MediaTek makes efforts to add AI capabilities to its Dimensity chips for smartphones and tablets, Genio family for the Internet of Things devices, Pentonic series of smart TVs, Kompanio line of Arm-based Chromebooks, along with the Dimensity auto platform for vehicles. MeidaTek, the world’s largest chip designer for smartphones
RSS