Industry, manufacturing index hits 22-consecutive-month growth

The Statistics Department of the Ministry of Economic Affairs announced on Thursday that the industrial production index for November was marked at 137.86, a year-on-year increase of 12.1%; the manufacturing production index for November was 141.16, a single-month high in the past year, with a year-on-year increase of 13.1%, and both marked a 22 consecutive-month expansion. The department estimates that the manufacturing production index in December will increase by 7.3% to 9.4% annually, marking a significant YoY growth.

The record-high manufacturing production index in November was mainly due to the continuous expansion of emerging technology applications and digital technology transformation, coupled with the increase in global terminal demand, which has driven the output of traditional industries. The demand in the first 11 months of this year has increased over the same period of the previous year, at around 14.5%.

The information electronics industry was also the main source of contribution to Taiwan's manufacturing capacity in November. Due to the strong demand for related chips such as 5G, high-performance computing, automotive electronics, the foundry and packaging IC production capacity was fully loaded. On the other hand, production of large-size industrial control, medical, and other industrial panels had continued to increase as well. The body circuit industry and the liquid crystal panel and component industry both increased by more than 20% annually.

In addition, the November production index of the computer, electronic products, and optical products industry reached 203.87, also a record high, with a year-on-year increase of 13.2%. The growth was due to strong demand for cloud data services and consumer electronic products, as well as the expansion of domestic production capacity by manufacturers, as well as the alleviation of supply chain shortages. Some orders were delayed and pushed back to November's production allotment.

Traditional industries benefited from the steady growth of the global economy in November. Terminal demand continued to grow, as well as the continued expansion of large domestic technology factories resulted in the machinery and equipment industry, basic metal industry, and chemical raw material industry being 19.16%, 8.49%, and 3.19%, respectively, each year.