TAIPEI: The Taiwan Institute of Economic Research said here the other day that the local manufacturing sector has been hurt by slower exports and falling industrial production, and is showing signs of weakening.
TIER, one of the nation’s leading economic think tanks, said the manufacturing composite index for last month fell 0.98 points from a month earlier to 10.12, turning “blue” on the institute’s monitoring spectrum, from “yellow-blue” in March.
Last month’s figure was the lowest since January last year, when the index stood at 9.69.
The think tank uses a five-color system to describe the state of the economy, with “red” indicating overheating, “yellow-red” representing fast growth, “green” showing stable growth, “yellow-blue” hinting at sluggish growth and “blue” indicating negative growth.
EXPORTS
Exports last month plunged 11.7 percent from a year earlier to US$23.49 billion at a time when global demand weakened.
In the same month, the nation’s industrial production index dropped 4.8 percent year-on-year to 106.37.
These figures pointed to weakening manufacturing activity in the country, TIER said.
Within last month’s manufacturing composite index, the sub-index for demand fell 0.37 points, the steepest drop among the five sub-indices, TIER said.
COSTS UP
The think tank said that the sub-index for the business environment, sales and raw material spending declined 0.32, 0.22 and 0.08 respectively from a month earlier.
However, last month’s sub-index for production costs rose 0.01 points from March, TIER said.
TIER cited a survey which said that local manufacturers — accounting for 68.04 percent of the country’s total manufacturing output — said the manufacturing indicator was “blue” last month and that the ratio rose from March’s 44.41 percent.
TIER said that many local electronics firms generally weakened as falling global demand hurt computer manufacturers, although international smartphone brands placed more orders to Taiwanese contract producers to offset part of the impact on the PC sector.
SLOW SEASON
The computer, electronics and optoelectronics indicators were “blue” last month, compared with “yellow-blue” in March, TIER said.
The local semiconductor sector was “yellow-blue” last month, unchanged from March, as the global integrated circuit industry was in the midst of a slow season, the think tank said.
