Manufacturing sector sluggish in September: TIER

Taipei, Oct. 31 (CNA) Growth in the local manufacturing sector was sluggish in September, marking an end to five months of stability, largely due to weakness in the old economy sector, the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) said Thursday.

The manufacturing indicator decreased from 13.02 in August to 11.84 in September, TIER said, meaning the sector flashed a "yellow-blue" light, down from the "green" light between April and August.

TIER uses a five-color system to assess manufacturing economic activity, with "red" indicating overheating, "yellow-red" showing fast growth, "green" representing stable growth, "yellow-blue" signaling sluggish growth, and "blue" meaning contraction.

Despite growth momentum in the information/communications, audiovisual and electronics industries in September, export growth in machine, plastic and chemical products declined, resulting in the "yellow-blue" light.

By industry, the year-on-year export growth rate of computer, electronics and optics industry continued to be in the double digits in September due to a strong demand for artificial intelligence applications and cloud-based services.

It flashed a "green" light last month, down from a "yellow-red" light in August.

The chemicals industry index flashed a "yellow-blue" light for the fourth consecutive month, mainly due to reduced demand from China and higher upstream material prices.

Looking ahead, the future remains uncertain for a range of industries given the varied pace of economic recovery, TIER said.

The think tank reminded businesses that the movement of international capital, tensions in the Middle East, international crude oil prices and political vulnerabilities in Japan could also impact Taiwan's manufacturing activity.