February industrial production index falls 1.1% annually

Taipei, March 25 (CNA) Taiwan's industrial production index dropped 1.1 percent year-on-year in February to 78.48, due mainly to fewer work days as a result of the Lunar New Year holiday, according to data released by the Ministry of Economic Affairs Monday.

Over the January-February period, the country's industrial production index gained 7.24 percent year-on-year, on rising sales of computer/information products as a result of greater demand for AI, high-performance computing and cloud-based services, the data showed.

The industrial production index measures output of Taiwan's manufacturing, mining/quarrying, electricity, and gas/water supply industries.

The sub-index for the manufacturing industry, which accounts for over 90 percent of Taiwan's industrial production index, edged down 1.2 percent from a year earlier to 77.96 in February, according to ministry figures.

The manufacturing industry can be further divided into computer/electronics components, electric equipment/optical products, basic metals, machinery equipment, automobile and parts and chemicals.

Huang Wei-jie (黃偉傑), deputy head of the ministry's Department of Statistics, said production in electronics components increased 10.11 percent on an annual base to 87.1  in the first two months, thanks to strong robust sales of 12 nm chips arising from demand for AI and high-performance computing, IC design, motherboards, dynamic random-access memory chips and large-sized panels and a lower comparison base last year.

The electronic equipment/optical product sector, meanwhile, posted an all-time high average production index of 102.87 for the two-month period, growing 18.28 percent year-on-year.

Huang attributed the growth to solid demand for AI applications, cloud-based services and upgraded smartphone lenses and servers.

In old economy industries, the basic metals and machinery equipment sectors saw their production index rise 3.78 percent and 3.65 percent annually in the January-February period, respectively, because of clients' need to rebuild inventory and a lower comparison base recorded last year.

At the same time, surging demand for electric cars and parts also pushed up the sector's production index by 8.82 percent during the same period year-on-year, the official said.

The chemical material/fertilizer sector was the only one to record negative growth, losing 0.34 percent in its production in the first two months compared with the previous year, Huang said, predicting that the sector's production will regain momentum in the second quarter.