As Taiwan depends more and more on China economically, its share of the export market is dropping because of changes in Chinese demand, the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) said yesterday.
“The nation is losing export market share in China — from 11.5 percent in 2004 to 9.1 percent last year,” Chiou Shiow-jiin (邱秀錦), director of the CEPD’s economic research department, told a media briefing. “The figure slipped to 7.3 percent last December but climbed to 8.3 percent in March.”
The market share of South Korea, Taiwan’s main rival, stood at 11.1 percent in 2004 and fell to 9.9 percent last year, the CEPD report said. The number dipped to 9 percent last December but rose to 10.7 percent in March, the report said.
Chiou said the depreciation of the South Korean currency probably helped the country weather the global slump.
As China places more emphasis on domestic demand, the country has increased imports of fuel, iron ore, soy beans and other raw materials, pushing up their costs. Consequently, countries that export raw materials — including Saudi Arabia, Australia, Iran, Russia, Brazil and Chile — saw their share of China’s export market rise from 9.4 percent in 2004 to 15.4 percent last year, the report said.
Chiou said the CEPD was conducting a study on the nation’s exports and their degree of contraction because foreign sales had increased to 70 percent of the nation’s GDP from about 40 percent a few years ago. The report on exports is due out in December, she said.
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