Auto parts suppliers relying on air freight to make timely deliveries could become a common practice in the future, industry watchers say, as the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the world's supply chains. As sea freight congestion has made deliveries unreliable, auto parts and even newly produced vehicles would become common passengers on air freight for market launch. Since early 2020, ve...

Market survey institution IHS Markit revealed its lowest expectations yet for the automotive market in the past nine months. Due to chip shortages and delayed chip packaging, global production will fall below five million units for passenger cars this year. The Malaysian lockdown of the country, which began in early June, was a major contributing factor that worsened supply chain issues, IHS p...

Taiwan's machinery and machine tool industries reported a stunning report card despite setbacks last year while the rest of the world was in lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The global economy's reopening in the first half of 2021 was also a boon for semiconductor production equipment, machine tools, and mechanical transmission equipment demands. According to Taiwan's Economic Ministry stat...

Construction demand is at an all-time high, even amid rising prices and shortages of materials. The Directorate General of Budget, Accounting, and Statistics under the Executive Yuan released its latest statistics on Friday, indicating that the August Construction Cost Index (CCI) increased 13.57%. This is largely due to international scrap metal prices increasing, with steel rising around 50...

Food security concerns and global government policies are driving the demand for LED grow lights, specifically North America's medical and recreation-use marijuana markets, TrendForce's new 2021 Global LED Market Report-LED-grade packaging, and LED products for 2H21 has found. The increased demand has led to an explosive uptick in 2020's global grow light LED market, rounding up the industry v...

Aside from the ongoing chip shortage situation that shows no sign of abating, despite chip makers investing in new factories, industry experts believe could last well into 2022. Automotive brands across the board have announced additional factory downtime; among these companies include Toyota, which worryingly reported cutting back 40% production of its output. It appears that chip shortages shou...

Taiwan's machinery exports between January and July continued to show an upward growth trajectory, reaching USD$18.556 billion, a 28.1% year-on-year growth, reported the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI). That would be $522.562 billion in Taiwan dollars, a 20.4% annual growth, marking a record high in the same period. Moreover, machinery exports have maintained double-digit growth f...

Taiwan's local outbreak between May and July has eased up as successful measures essentially stamped out the local spread and amid rising inoculation rates. However, this is only to see the rest of the world buckle against the Delta variant after global economies enjoyed a brief respite over the spring and early summer. What's worryingly is how aside from East Asian nations, where the world's maj...

The steel markets in Vietnam and Malaysia have been severely impacted by the COVID-19 surge in Southeast Asia. China Steel experts say while demand exists, it remains overshadowed by the pandemic. A strong rebound is expected once the outbreak lets up, they say. Lockdown restrictions on Ho Chi Minh City and nationwide have led to closures and challenges in importing materials and exporting pro...

Leading think tank Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) issued its monthly manufacturing composite indicators for July this week, signaling a decline through its index gauging the sector's climate, though it showed a continued rapid growth phase. TIER's composite manufacturing index declined 1.16 points to 16.52 in July, a small decline from June's score of 17.68. The index remained i...