After two years of the COVID-19 pandemic and the world grappling with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that began on February 24, supply chain disruptions that have derailed many industries are forecasted to continue well into 2022, amid a myriad of trends and problems. In this section, we discuss industry trends in three main areas. Auto Parts Auto parts, or more specifically, aftermarket (AM)...

Japanese automotive brand Toyota's recent announcement of reducing production in March due to chip shortages is another setback for the company, as this would not be its first time scaling back capacity in the past two years. Earlier, Toyota had also announced that the chip shortages had slashed the group's production goals from April to June. However, Economic Daily News points out that Toyot...

Top automotive electronic suppliers and Taiwan's leading R&D center in autonomous technology and testing, Automotive Research and Testing Center (ARTC), collectively announced the formation of the “Automotive AI Imagery Chip and Smart Cockpit Display Module Industry Alliance" on March 18. Representatives from Elan Microelectronics, AU Optronics, Chimei Motor, China Motor, RAC Electric Vehicles...

Despite the National Development Council (NDC) announcing a slight drop of the economy's composite index of economic indicators for Taiwan for January on Tuesday, overall signals indicate a strong market and investments performance. The index fell two points from 38 to 36 between December 2021 and January, sitting in the yellow-red range on the council's five-color rating system, with "blue" i...

The domestic container shipping industry believes that the container ship market is still experiencing difficulties as Asian countries enter the Year of the Tiger. The current information obtained by domestic companies is that the port congestion situation in the U.S. is still difficult and unlikely to lessen in the short term. Fortunately, shipping prices were able to experience a brief repr...

In the past two years, the global COVID-19 outbreak has caused major international exhibitions to be canceled one after another, prompting waves of changes needed to overhaul the marketing model of traditional physical exhibitions. In the past, many international buyers mainly sought overseas potential partners and agency brands by participating in major international exhibitions. However, as...

Walsin Lihwa announced significant price hikes measures going into February for 300 series stainless steel; for domestic sales, prices per ton would be increased NTD$6,000, while outbound stainless steel would see a USD$200 per ton increase. 400 series stainless steel prices will remain at the threshold. With basic metal prices surging, specifically for copper and nickel, the latter saw the bi...

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 ...

Amid the news of product and raw material shortages due to many issues in the global production chain and export countries, aluminum makers warned about the incoming shortage of magnesium, a crucial component in the production of alloys. International news outlets have pointed to the energy crisis in China as the nexus point that further worsened the snowball effect of shortages of essential r...