Taiwan's exports to the US remain in the doldrums and it will take some time for the situation to improve, the latest international trade figures released by the US Commerce Department this week show.
"It is still very, very clear that the consumption of Taiwan goods by the US market has not rebounded to a level that we would hope," Rupert Hammond-Chambers, president of the US-ROC (Taiwan) Business Council told the Taipei Times.
The latest figures through October show that both Taiwan exports to and imports from the US are well behind last year's. For the first 10 months of this year, Taiwan sold US$28.4 billion in goods and services to the US, compared with US$33.9 billion in the year-earlier period.
In October alone -- usually a strong period during which US companies are still buying for Christmas -- sales were US$2.9 billion, down from US$3.8 billion in October last year. Although the last exports were up from September's US$2.6 billion level, those figures were distorted by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
While much of the drop in Taiwan exports is in computer chips, the problem is "much broader than that," Hammond-Chambers said. While there are signs that the chip-export market is bottoming out, the US market for consumer electronic goods generally is still being hurt. A notable exception, he says, is in video games.
"You've seen here in the United States real significant growth in these areas, and that should have some impact on Taiwan, since companies like Macronix (旺宏), Taiwan Semiconductor (
With the impact of the US economic slowdown and the aftermath of Sept. 11, US consumers are expected to spend less this Christmas than they have in recent years, most economics believe. This would affect such areas as Taiwan-made consumer electronics. And in January, in the post-holiday period, Taiwan exports usually decline.
"We're still seeing in these figures two economies experiencing difficulties, and that will probably continue for at least two more quarters," Hammond-Chambers said.
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