WINDFALL: Local companies benefited from order transfers by clients seeking to circumvent trade rows between the US and China as well as South Korea and Japan

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 02, 2019
By Crystal Hsu  /  Staff reporter

The nation’s manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month climbed back to neutral territory, ending four straight months of decline, as the development of 5G technology ramped up business for local firms in the supply chain, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday.

The critical gauge of the manufacturing industry’s health measured 50 — the dividing line between contraction and expansion — as business improved for companies involved in the production of electronics, chemical products and transportation tools, the Taipei-based think tank’s monthly survey found.

However, the improvement is not broad-based, as suppliers of food and textile products, raw materials, and electrical and machinery equipment have yet to come out of the woods, it said.

“Demand for electronics used by industrial clients gained strength, raising inventory to the normal position,” CIER president Chen Shi-kuan (陳思寬) told a media briefing.    [FULL  STORY]