The new year was ushered in over the weekend; despite new beginnings, trends in 2021 that included shortages and rising prices will continue into 2022, exacerbated by backlogged shipping ports and worsening COVID-19 situations in major manufacturing hubs. Chip Shortages Since the COVID-19 pandemic ramped up in 2020, semiconductor shortages persisted as supply failed to keep up with consumer...

Chung-Hua Institution For Economic Research (CIER) announced October's Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) of Taiwan's manufacturing industry today, which increased slightly by 0.5 to 58.3 after two months of decline. CIER President Chang Chuan-zhang said that although the PMI index has expanded for 16 consecutive months, port congestion, freight delays, shortage of key components, and delivery ...

Taiwan Power Co. (Taipower) announced that as of Thursday evening, the operating reserve of electricity was reported to be at only 4.32%, with the state power supplier's status index showing an orange light indicating a stressed capacity in the afternoon. The news comes amid heightened awareness regarding energy supply as countries around the world battle with impending power shortages or pow...

Supply chain disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic could severely worsen this year to another level, reported BofA Global Research. The industry research report issued on Thursday presented a pessimistic outlook. Analysts at the Bank of America said the many issues seen in the U.S. are only the beginning, such as the lack of workers unloading sea freight containers. "These issues will l...

Media reports say that prolonged restrictions in Southeast Asian countries have taken a toll on their economies due to the Delta variant-fueled COVID-19 outbreak. Governments have begun reopening their economies despite the surge of COVID-19 cases and lack of containment, largely blamed on the slow vaccine roll-out. The region had quickly overtaken other parts of the world to become the worst...

The global transportation peak season is expected to worsen the port congestion problem, presented in how the global large container carrier's general rate increase (GRI) is slated for an uptick growth again in October, pushing shipping prices between East Asia and North America to an all-time high. Freight companies moving to increase prices include Evergreen, Yangming, COSCO, HMM, Hapag-Lloy...

Amid the Delta variant-fueled outbreaks going around the world, event organizers, exhibitors, and marketers hoping for the return of in-person events in the fourth quarter should be According to a SearchEngineLand article, their survey of marketing professionals this summer indicated a 50% chance on average that they would attend an in-person event through the end of 2021. Their latest Eve...

The Ministry of Finance announced well-performing figures regarding Taiwan's export numbers for July on Monday, reaching US$37.95 billion, setting a new monthly high in the past year as an annual increase of 34.7%, and marked a positive growth for 13 consecutive months. The export value of the four major categories of goods, including electronic components, information communication and audio...

The National Development Council's business climate monitor signaled a fifth consecutive red light in June, with its index just one point less than in May, an optimistic outlook of Taiwan's economic situation. Council director Wu Ming-hui said the current domestic economy is continuing to warm up. Despite the localized COVID-19 outbreak throughout May and June, the manufacturing industry was n...

The U.S. consumer market is preparing for peak season in Q4, and this has led to a situation where global entities are charting shipping containers to ensure delivery. International e-commerce giant Alibaba recently announced that it would begin operating a chartered shipping route initiative between East Asia and the U.S. western coast. Each week would see around 3,000 TEU and a monthly 12,00...