Manufacturing sector growth on track in Taiwan

2014-09-03

Taiwan’s manufacturing activity continued to grow last month despite economic uncertainties at home and abroad, according to Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research Sept. 1.

CIER President Wu Chung-shu said the Purchasing Managers’ Index dropped from 58.5 percent in July to 55.4 percent in August, the biggest decline for the year but maintaining an 18-month run of expansion.

“The drop-off can mainly be attributed to the impact on the local petrochemical sector of the Kaohsiung City pipeline explosions in July,” he said, adding that political unrest in Ukraine also played a role.

“It is still too early to describe the setback as the onset of a recession, and we remain cautiously optimistic about the outlook for the rest of the year.”

Eight of the subindexes comprising the overall benchmark showed signs of expansion, but employment, new orders, raw material imports and prices as well as the six-month outlook registered decelerated growth.

Unfilled orders dropped below 50 percent for the first time this year, while customer inventory rose to 51.6 percent, reversing a 12-month contraction.

Among the country’s six major industries, transportation is the only sector to drop below 50 percent, with food and textiles showing accelerated growth on the strength of robust seasonal demand.

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=221217&CtNode=413)