Higher oil prices saw Taiwan's export orders in May fell to US$19.52 billion from US$20.81 billion in April and a record US$20.9 billion in March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
The slowdown in export orders -- indicative of shipments in one to three months -- was attributed to higher global crude oil prices, China's long holiday in early May and a slower pace in global economic growth.
The May export orders figure marked a 13.14 percent year-on-year rise, compared with the 15.42 percent gain in April.
For the five months to May, export orders totaled US$95.85 billion, up 17.61 percent from the same period a year earlier, the ministry said.
By country, orders from the US in May rose 4.60 percent year-on-year to US$5.35 billion, while sales to Hong Kong were up 7.85 percent to US$4.70 billion as orders from Japan jumped 56.05 percent to US$2.22 billion.
Orders from Europe amounted to US$3.03 billion, up 14.99 percent.
Meanwhile, industrial output in May was up 1.51 percent from April but was down 1.42 percent year-on-year, the ministry said.
In the first five months of the year, industrial output fell 0.35 percent but the ministry said it expected manufacturing to do better in the second half of this year.
Chang Yaw-tzong (張耀宗), the ministry's statistics director-general, said a more promising second half appears likely given growing signs that the electronics components industry is bottoming out and heading for a recovery.
Further, stronger domestic demand can be expected as the government adopts further stimulus measures, he added.
According to the ministry, orders for the nation's plastics rose 22 percent to US$1.2 billion and those for metals products increased 11 percent to US$1.8 billion. Sales of precision engineering tools fell 7.5 percent to US$1 billion after climbing 22 percent in April.
Still, demand for technology products is picking up. Overseas orders for the nation's electronic goods rose 13.6 percent to US$4.38 billion in May and those for information technology and telecommunications equipment increased 25.37 percent to US$3.55 billion.
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