The nation’s export orders grew 14.5 percent year-on-year to US$31.51 billion last month, making it the ninth consecutive month except February that orders exceeded US$30 billion, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
Electronics topped the list of export orders last month, rising 17.9 percent from a year ago to US$7.02 billion, followed by information and communication products.
Chemicals posted the largest increase at 46.84 percent compared with the same month last year, replacing precision instruments, which were affected by the slowdown in export orders for panels in the second quarter, Huang Ji-shih (黃吉實), director of the ministry’s Department of Statistics, said at a press conference.
Export orders in the first five months of the year increased US$20.22 billion, or 15.5 percent year-on-year, to US$151.08 billion, the ministry’s tallies showed.
Meanwhile, the ministry’s recent survey of business confidence showed that Taiwanese companies expecting export orders to drop this month outweighed those expecting orders to increase by 5 percentage points.
Huang said that could be a signal of lower export orders this month compared with last month.
“Nonetheless, based on recent export order tallies of US$30 billion per month, we still expect export orders to US$360 billion this year,” Huang said.
That compares with last year’s US$345.81 billion.
Citibank said that last month’s export order growth was slightly lower than market estimation of 15 percent and the bank’s own forecast of 15.3 percent.
“Citibank estimates that while the nation’s export order amount will continue to increase, the export order growth will begin to decline,” Cheng Cheng-mount (鄭貞茂), vice president and chief economist at Citibank Taiwan, said by telephone yesterday.
“Inflation will continue to affect global economic growth in the second half of this year, which will in turn affect Taiwan’s export order growth. The nation’s export order growth will likely drop from current double digits to a single digit by year-end,” Cheng said.
The ministry also reported that the industrial production index rose 5.3 percent year-on-year last month, with the manufacturing industry climbing 5.9 percent.
JITTERS: Nexperia has a 20 percent market share for chips powering simpler features such as window controls, and changing supply chains could take years European carmakers are looking into ways to scratch components made with parts from China, spooked by deepening geopolitical spats playing out through chipmaker Nexperia BV and Beijing’s export controls on rare earths. To protect operations from trade ructions, several automakers are pushing major suppliers to find permanent alternatives to Chinese semiconductors, people familiar with the matter said. The industry is considering broader changes to its supply chain to adapt to shifting geopolitics, Europe’s main suppliers lobby CLEPA head Matthias Zink said. “We had some indications already — questions like: ‘How can you supply me without this dependency on China?’” Zink, who also
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) received about NT$147 billion (US$4.71 billion) in subsidies from the US, Japanese, German and Chinese governments over the past two years for its global expansion. Financial data compiled by the world’s largest contract chipmaker showed the company secured NT$4.77 billion in subsidies from the governments in the third quarter, bringing the total for the first three quarters of the year to about NT$71.9 billion. Along with the NT$75.16 billion in financial aid TSMC received last year, the chipmaker obtained NT$147 billion in subsidies in almost two years, the data showed. The subsidies received by its subsidiaries —
The number of Taiwanese working in the US rose to a record high of 137,000 last year, driven largely by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) rapid overseas expansion, according to government data released yesterday. A total of 666,000 Taiwanese nationals were employed abroad last year, an increase of 45,000 from 2023 and the highest level since the COVID-19 pandemic, data from the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) showed. Overseas employment had steadily increased between 2009 and 2019, peaking at 739,000, before plunging to 319,000 in 2021 amid US-China trade tensions, global supply chain shifts, reshoring by Taiwanese companies and
At least US$50 million for the freedom of an Emirati sheikh: That is the king’s ransom paid two weeks ago to militants linked to al-Qaeda who are pushing to topple the Malian government and impose Islamic law. Alongside a crippling fuel blockade, the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) has made kidnapping wealthy foreigners for a ransom a pillar of its strategy of “economic jihad.” Its goal: Oust the junta, which has struggled to contain Mali’s decade-long insurgency since taking power following back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021, by scaring away investors and paralyzing the west African country’s economy.
RSS