Export orders hit new record in April

Export orders hit a record US$18.03 billion last month, increasing 33.55 percent from the same month last year on strong global demand, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.

The figure compared with a 27.81 percent rise posted in March, the ministry said in a statement. Industrial output last month was up 12.82 percent from a year ago, but down 3.57 percent from March.

By sector, orders for electronics products reported the biggest increase last month, rising 48.44 percent from the same month last year to NT$3.9 billion, the ministry said, citing a strong demand for wireless and digital consumer electronics goods.

Orders for information and communication goods grew 12.58 percent to US$3.12 billion.

Greater overseas demand for precision-equipment products, which rose 185.32 percent to US$1.13 billion in the month due to a boom in the flat-panel sector, also made a substantial contribution to the rise in orders, according to the ministry.

For the first four months of the year export orders amounted to US$64.25 billion, up 25.54 percent from a year earlier.

"There is a possibility that export orders could breach US$19 billion" this fall, Chang Yaw-tsong (張耀宗), the ministry's statistics chief, told a briefing yesterday.

Orders from the US reached US$5 billion, up 19.43 percent, while orders from China jumped 37.2 percent to US$4.07 billion.