The manufacturing sector’s production value is forecast to rise 5.49 percent year-on-year to NT$23.38 trillion (US$723.48 billion) next year, mainly driven by demand for emerging technology applications, the Industrial Technology Research Institute’s Industry, Science and Technology International Strategy Center (ISTI) said in a report yesterday.
The sector has shown signs of a recovery lately, the report said, citing factors such as consecutive months of increases in the manufacturing purchasing managers’ index of major economies and the gradual pickup of global trade volume, while inventory levels among Taiwanese manufacturers are returning to normal levels.
Despite the report, the center said it expects the sector’s production value to contract 10.68 percent to NT$22.17 trillion this year, as the output of four major industries drop by between 1.73 and 13.74 percent from last year after major central banks raised interest rates to curb inflation and dented market demand.
Photo courtesy of the Industrial Technology Research Institute
The four major pillars of the sector refer to the information and electronics industry, the chemical industry, the metals and machinery industry, and the livelihood industry — which includes textile and food production.
“With external demand improving, domestic investment turning positive and private consumption stabilizing, the outlook for Taiwan’s economic growth next year is positive, and the manufacturing sector would regain growth momentum,” ISTI analyst Chen Chia-ying (陳佳楹) said in the report.
However, geopolitical tensions, increasing economic polarization, China’s property market woes and commodity price fluctuations would pose risks to the global economy next year, which would in turn affect Taiwan’s export-oriented manufacturers, Chen said.
“There are also three major trend changes that warrant closer attention, including supply chain restructuring, accelerated technological innovations and advances in semiconductor technologies,” she said.
The report forecast a 7.57 percent annual increase in the production value of the information and electronics industry next year, as inventory adjustments are nearing an end and innovative applications such as 5G, automotive devices and low Earth orbit satellites continue to emerge.
It predicted a 4.07 percent growth in the output of the chemical industry next year, saying the steady demand for low-carbon, sustainable products would lead to a transformation in the industry.
Production value in the metals and machinery industry is forecast to increase 3.93 percent next year on the back of semiconductor companies’ global deployment, business opportunities related to green and smart manufacturing and demand from emerging markets, the report said.
The livelihood industry is expected to expand output 3.97 percent from this year, thanks to the easing pressure on food and raw material prices and less stressful inventory adjustments in the international market, it said, adding that textile makers are to see strong growth momentum next year due to the Summer Olympics Games in Paris.
Apple Inc has closed in on an agreement with OpenAI to use the start-up’s technology on the iPhone, part of a broader push to bring artificial intelligence (AI) features to its devices, people familiar with the matter said. The two sides have been finalizing terms for a pact to use ChatGPT features in Apple’s iOS 18, the next iPhone operating system, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the situation is private. Apple also has held talks with Alphabet Inc’s Google about licensing its Gemini chatbot. Those discussions have not led to an agreement, but are ongoing. An OpenAI
INSATIABLE: Almost all AI innovators are working with the chipmaker to address the rapidly growing AI-related demand for energy-efficient computing power, the CEO said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported about 60 percent annual growth in revenue for last month, benefiting from rapidly growing demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing applications. Revenue last month expanded to NT$236.02 billion (US$7.28 billion), compared with NT$147.9 billion in April last year, the second-highest level in company history, TSMC said in a statement. On a monthly basis, revenue surged 20.9 percent, from NT$195.21 billion in March. As AI-related applications continue to show strong growth, TSMC expects revenue to expand about 27.6 percent year-on-year during the current quarter to between US$19.6 billion and US$20.4 billion. That would
‘FULL SUPPORT’: Kumamoto Governor Takashi Kimura said he hopes more companies would settle in the prefecture to create an area similar to Taiwan’s Hsinchu Science Park The newly elected governor of Japan’s Kumamoto Prefecture said he is ready to ensure wide-ranging support to woo Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to build its third Japanese chip factory there. Concerns of groundwater shortages when TSMC’s two plants begin operations in the prefecture’s Kikuyo have spurred discussions about the possibility of tapping unused dam water, Kumamoto Governor Takashi Kimura said in an interview on Saturday. While Kimura said talks about a third plant have yet to occur, Bloomberg had reported TSMC is already considering its third Japanese fab — also in Kumamoto — which would make more advanced chips. “We are
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been