Taiwan’s reliance on China as its biggest export market continued to rise, as 32.2 percent of its exports in September, totaling US$6.14 billion in value, went to China, statistics released by the Bureau of Foreign Trade (BOFT) showed on Monday.
However, the statistics showed that the economic downturn may have affected two-way trade.
In the first nine months of this year, two-way trade between Taiwan and China amounted to US$60.35 billion, down 29.7 percent from that of the same period last year, statistics showed.
In January-to-September, cross-strait trade accounted for 22.7 percent of Taiwan’s foreign trade in value.
During the nine-month period, Taiwan’s exports to China amounted to US$43.45 billion, down 28.6 percent from that of the same period of last year; imports from China were valued at US$16.9 billion, down 32.4 percent year-on-year.
In September, Taiwan’s exports to China registered a record high for the past 12 months at US$6.14 billion, a slight decrease of 0.3 percent from that of the same month last year.
Imports from China in September were valued at US$2.49 billion, also a single month high for the past 12 months, though a 7.5 percent drop from that of the same month a year ago.
Statistics on export orders released by the Ministry of Economic Affairs showed that after months of sluggishness, export orders from China were picking up since July and has been gaining momentum, with month-on-month growth at 2.2 percent in July, 7.3 percent in August, 9.47 percent in September and 19.6 percent in October.
Meanwhile, statistics compiled by Chinese customs authorities indicate that Japan, South Korea and Taiwan were the three major sources of supplies, with January-to-September imports from Japan amounting to US$92.35 billion, from South Korea totaling US$72.55 billion, and from Taiwan valued at US$59.71 billion.
Chinese customs statistics showed that Taiwan remained China’s No. 1 supplier of electrical appliances and parts and second-largest supplier of optical products and plastics products, although Taiwan’s exports to that market dropped by 29.2 percent in value in the January-to-September period this year.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day