The Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 台灣區機械公會) yesterday urged the government to take effective measures, such as increasing lending and allowing the New Taiwan dollar to depreciate, to boost the industry’s export competitiveness in the face of falling exports, local media said yesterday.
Taiwan’s exports plummeted by a record 41.9 percent last month from a year earlier to reach US$13.64 billion, the lowest level since October 2003, Ministry of Finance data showed.
Exports of electronics products saw the largest decline last month, plunging 43.4 percent, or US$2.49 billion, from a year earlier, while machinery exports dropped by 30.2 percent or US$460.2 million.
The South Korean government had allowed its currency to depreciate by between 30 percent and 40 percent, allowing South Korean machinery companies to cut their global prices by between 10 percent and 20 percent, the Central News Agency reported yesterday, citing TAMI chairman Fred Huang (黃博治).
Huang urged the government to allow the NT dollar to depreciate by 20 percent to help local machinery manufacturers.
The economic downturn has caused around 10 percent of local machinery firms to run into difficulties, and the closure of these firms would have an impact on the whole industry, the report said.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
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