Exports rose 27 percent in September

The nation's exports rose 27.4 percent in September from a year earlier to US$11.28 billion in reflection of a low comparison base last year after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the US, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.

This compared with a rise of 15.5 percent recorded in August, and represented the largest increase in exports since the 35.5 percent rise in September 2000.

Sales to Asian markets in September were up 36.6 percent from a year earlier with exports to Hong Kong, China and South Korea up at least 27 percent, the ministry said.

`Rising exports to China help cushion the effect of slowing shipments to the US,'' said Ellen Lee, an economist at International Securities Co (國際證券).

While China surpassed the US as Taiwan's biggest export market last year, local exporters are still vulnerable to slowing US demand. "Most of the China-bound shipments are re-exported to the US," Lee said. "Ultimately, the island can't escape the effects of slowing growth there."

Last week, the US-based Advanced Micro Devices Inc, the world's second-biggest maker of personal-computer processors, said slack demand and increasing inventory caused third-quarter sales to drop more than forecast.

That's hurting Taiwan-based electronics suppliers.

``Everything started softening from the second quarter,'' said Janet Chen, a project manager at Siliconware Investment Co, a unit of Siliconware Precision Industries Co (矽品精密), the world's third- largest computer-chip assembler. ``You can sense there's no firm pickup.''

Siliconware Precision packages chips for customers such as Via Technologies Inc (威盛電子), whose chips work with processors made by AMD.

Shipments of computer chips and other electronics, which make up the biggest share of the total, rose 37 percent. Sales of mobile phones and other telecommunications goods gained 35 percent.

In September, imports rose 36.3 percent from a year earlier to US$10.6 billion after a 18.8 percent rise posted in August.

The increase for imports in September marked the highest gain since a 40.4 percent growth in September 2000.

The ministry said the trade surplus in September fell 36.5 percent from a year earlier to US$690 million, compared with a 0.8 percent rise in August.

In the first nine months of this year, exports rose 5.1 percent from a year earlier to US$95.63 billion, while imports were up 2.6 percent at US$83.19 billion.

During the nine-month period, the trade surplus rose 25.5 percent year-on-year to US$12.4 billion.

The ministry's statistics director Hsu Kuo-chung (許國忠) said the ministry was keeping its forecasts of a 5.44 percent expansion in exports and a 6.09 percent rise in imports for the whole year.

"Exports in the third quarter rose 19 percent from a year earlier, compared with our forecast of 17.9 percent, while imports increased an in-line 23.2 percent," he said.

While Taiwan's external trade could be affected by the global economy, the labor problems on US West Coast ports and the tension in the Middle East, the government's earlier forecasts for 7.3 percent year-on-year growth in fourth quarter exports and a 17 percent increase in imports remained in place, Hsu said.