The nation’s export orders dropped 20.14 percent year-on-year to US$25.17 billion last month, as rush orders from China continued to benefit high-tech firms but slowed down in the off season, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
The latest figure marked a seven-month high, but barely increased from a month earlier when the amount stood at US$25.13 billion, the ministry said.
“The decline in export orders decelerated further by US$6.35 billion last month,” the ministry’s statistics department director Huang Ji-shih (黃吉實) said at a press briefing. “Total value gained 0.15 percent from April.”
Orders for basic metal products posted the biggest drop, shrinking US$850 million, or 33.13 percent, from a year earlier, Huang said, attributing the decline partly to higher metal costs last year.
Orders for information and telecommunication products came second, weakening 11.9 percent, or US$796 million, followed by electronic product orders at a contraction of 11.33 percent, or US$795 million, the official said.
Export orders by China (including Hong Kong) decreased 17.65 percent to US$7.08 billion, with chemical products topping other categories, ministry data showed. Orders by the US and Europe fell 17.35 percent and 28 percent to US$5.84 billion and US$3.92 billion respectively.
Johnny Chen (陳擎宏), deputy manager of the economics and industry research department at First Commercial Bank (第一銀行), said rush or short-term orders from China continued, but slowed from March or April.
“Visibility in [export orders] remains poor,” Chen said by telephone.
“Talks of recovery are premature unless firms report regular orders from the US and Europe in coming months,” he said.
Cheng Cheng-mount (鄭貞茂), chief economist at Citigroup Taiwan Inc, said the latest export order data affirmed stabilization but remained dismal compared with the pre-recession level.
“The economy is likely to shrink 8.5 percent this quarter based on export orders and other indicators,” Cheng said by telephone.
In the first five months of the year, export orders totaled US$112.02 billion, down 25.85 percent from the same period last year, ministry data showed.
Meanwhile, the ministry also said the reading index of industrial production (IP) rose 4.21 percent last month from the previous month on improved output by semiconductor, flat panel and steel firms.
But compared with a year ago, industrial production fell 18.3 percent last month, narrowed from a 20 percent fall in April.
Cheng said the IP data promised a better chance of recovery as the figure after seasonal adjustments showed a rebound for four straight months.
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