STRONG PERFORMANCE:Fixed-asset investments last year were the highest in five years, thanks to the semiconductor industry’s equipment purchases and expansion.
The nation’s manufacturing sector fixed-asset investments surged 11.8 percent to NT$1.08 trillion (US$35.63 billion) last year, ending two years of annual decline thanks to the electronic components industry, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
The results were the strongest since 2010, ministry data showed.
“It suggests improving confidence among the manufacturers in investments amid a recovering global economy,” Department of Statistics Deputy Director-General Wang Shu-chuan said by telephone.
The fixed-asset investments include capital spent on infrastructure, plant construction and machinery equipment purchases. Equipment purchases accounted for 86.55 percent of last year’s total investments, the data showed.
The electronics component industry contributed 65.07 percent of the total, with investment rising 16.2 percent annually to NT$707.9 billion, Wang said.
She attributed the growth to semiconductor manufacturers’ expansion of production and equipment purchases to cope with growing demand for advanced technologies, which are essential to next-generation smartphones and Internet-of-Things devices.
Investments by the petroleum and coal-making industry grew 2.2 percent to NT$26.9 billion, as manufacturers installed new equipment to enhance production efficiency, Wang said.
The ministry forecast the manufacturing sector’s fixed-asset investment to continue expanding this quarter from the same period last year, Wang said, as a survey showed an improvement in confidence within the sector.
In a separate release, the ministry said the manufacturing sector’s revenue growth swung back into positive territory last quarter after six straight quarters of contraction.
Revenue climbed 3.6 percent year-on-year to NT$7.62 trillion, thanks to contributions from the electronic components, petrochemicals and basic metals segments, Wang said.
For the whole of last year, the manufacturing sector’s total revenue dropped 2.4 percent to NT$25.78 trillion, due to low average selling prices and soft demand for petrochemicals and steel products in the first half of last year, she said.
The manufacturing sector showed signs of stable growth last month, as the index that gauges the sector’s climate flashed green for the first time in three years, the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research said yesterday.
The institute’s composite index of the manufacturing sector rose to 13.03 points from 11.14 points in January.
A green light indicates stable growth, an improvement from the yellow-blue light recorded for the previous four months, which signals sluggish growth.
The institute attributed the improvement to a modest recovery in the global economy, which pushed up sales of many export-oriented manufacturers in the month. |
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