MARKED IMPROVEMENT: The sub-index on new business orders last month climbed to 61 from 52.7 in October, with firms in the 5G sector driving the increase, CIER said

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 03, 2019
By: Crystal Hsu  /  Staff reporter

Taiwan’s official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose to a 15-month high of 54.9, driven by demand for electronics and biomedicine products, as market uncertainty subsided, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday.

About half of the manufacturing sectors reported a pickup in business, especially firms involved in the deployment of 5G products and services, the Taipei-based think tank said.

“Business improvement was most evident for firms in the global 5G supply chain,” CIER president Chen Shi-kuan (陳思寬) told a media briefing, adding that the absence of economic deterioration in the US and Europe also helped.

PMI aims to gauge the health of the manufacturing industry, with scores of more than 50 indicating expansion and those below the threshold suggesting a contraction.    [FULL  STORY]