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Taiwanese firms' output value fell 13% during 1H

Recession-induced price erosion takes its toll

Taiwanese manufacturers, source of many of the world's CD and DVD drives, CRT and LCD monitors, mobos, digital cameras, scanners, notebook PCs and the like, saw the sale value of their products fall 13 per cent year-on-year during the first six months of 2001, the island's Market Information Centre, part of the Institute for Information Industry, has reported.

That's proof, if it were needed, that the economic downturn is hitting all aspects of the computer business, from systems to peripherals.

Scanner makers were worst hit, with output value down 32.8 per cent. CRT monitor output value fell 31.6 per cent. Notebook PC output value fell 16.9 per cent, on a four per cent fall in shipments. Desktop PC output value was down 14.1 per cent. Motherboard output value fell 0.4 per cent. CD-R output value fell 3.5 per cent.

Some sectors bucked the trend. LCD output value grew 168.7 per cent, on shipments up 36.1 per cent to 2.9 million units. Digital camera shipments grew by 158.3 per cent, while the money the brought manufacturers rose 168.9 per cent.

Looking ahead, the MIC reckons the downturn will have bottomed out next month and business will begin to grow again in October. It forecasts overall output value to grow by 5-6 per cent during last three months of the year, resulting in an annual drop of 8.4 per cent.

A small percentage, true, but still worth up to NT$120 billion ($3.48 billion), the MIC reckons. Roll on the recovery. ®

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