High-tech Goods Begin Rebound

Global sales of information technology and communications goods surged suddenly in May and June, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said Wednesday in a report. The sector may have passed a turning point and be on the road to a recovery, the Paris-based group said.

In May and June, most countries registered positive month-on-month production growth in the computer and telecom technology sectors, OECD said. Inventories have depleted significantly after growing at a historically fast pace. Earlier this year, production levels plunged by as much as 40 percent on an annual basis in Japan, Korea, Taiwan and other Asian countries. Asian exports of IT and telecom products collapsed.

Orders for semiconductor makers, usually a bellwether for the IT sector, are rebounding sharply, the report said. Exports of high-tech products from Asia are also growing again month-to-month. Korean producers, in particular, have been aided by a weaker currency, and their production in May was down by only 3 percent, year on year. Although Chinese exports of high-tech products dropped by over 20 percent year on year in May, China's production of IT and telecom products grew at a rate of nearly 3 percent in May 2009, when compared with May 2008. That means more of China's production of these products is being used to serve its domestic market.

Source: JOC