Posted on 26 Aug 2020
Industrial production last month increased 2.65 percent year-on-year to post a sixth consecutive month of growth, the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Department of Statistics said in a report yesterday.
Robust performance by high-tech industries continued to support industrial production, the ministry said.
The integrated circuit industry has seen double-digit percentage growth in production for the past nine months, the report said, adding that its output last month expanded 22 percent from a year earlier, the best July figure ever.
The output of the electronic components industry also increased by a double-digit percentage for the eighth consecutive month at 14.4 percent, while the output of the electronic goods and optical components industry posted its sixth consecutive monthly growth at 12.8 percent, the report said.
However, traditional industries continued to suffer from COVID-19-related challenges.
The output of the chemical materials industry fell 1.7 percent on low oil prices and sagging orders, while the output from the base metal industry dropped 14 percent as domestic steel production lines underwent maintenance and local companies received lower orders amid the pandemic, the report said.
Output of petroleum, coal and related products slid 26.5 percent and the output from the metal industry fell 5.9 percent, despite increasing demand for offshore wind facilities, it said.
The output of mechanical equipment declined 3.5 percent due to uncertainties caused by the pandemic and the US-China trade row, it added.
The auto and auto parts industry also reported a 12.9 percent decline in output due to low oil prices and the effect of Ghost Month, which started on Aug. 19.
Ghost Month last year began on Aug. 1.
“Last year, we had a lot of people buying cars in July to avoid Ghost Month, but some of those purchases would be pushed into August this year, as the Ghost Month did not start until Aug. 19,” Department of Statistics Deputy Director-General Huang Wei-jie (黃偉傑) said.
Amid continuing good performance by electronics manufacturers on the back of high demand for 5G products, high-performance computing, Internet of Things and telecommuting products, industrial production this month is forecast to grow between minus-0.2 percent and 3.5 percent, the statistics department said.
Source:Taipei Times
