Taiwan's Inventory Rate Hits New High of 68.5% as of October 2011

Taipei, Jan. 11, 2012 (CENS)--Influenced by the global lukewarm business climate, Taiwan's export-oriented manufactures experienced falling sales in the second half of last year, causing the inventory rate of the manufacturing industry surge to 68.5% as of the end of October 2011, for the highest figure of its kind since June of 2009, according to a survey recently done by the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA).

An MOEA official indicated that inventory rate refers to the ratio of total stock value against total sales value. So, the increase of stock value or the decrease of sales value will push up the inventory rate. At the end of October of 2011 the stock value of all manufacturing industries grew to NT$634.9 billion (US$21.16 billion) and total sales value of the industries fell to NT$928.7 billion (US$30.96 billion), thus pushing up the inventory rate to 68.5%.

In January of 2009 the inventory rate jumped to over 100% due to the impact of the global financial tsunami that broke out in the second half of 2008. The percentage slowly shrank to normal level of around 60% as the global economy gradually regained its strength in 2010.

However, in the second half of 2011 Taiwan's industries, including textile, garment, basic metal, electronic parts, computers & related items, chemical materials, etc., all saw their inventory rates surge on sluggish global business caused by European debt crisis. As a result, the inventory rate of the entire manufacturing sector rose to a new high of 68.5% at the end of October.