Export orders rose 35.15 percent year-on-year to US$33.96 billion last month, driven mainly by strong demand for Taiwanese-made computers, mobile phones and electronics products, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a report yesterday, but analysts said there were “worrying signs.”
Last month export orders marked their seventh consecutive month of growth since October last year and the amount in US dollar terms represented the second-highest on record after March’s US$34.39 billion, the ministry’s report said.
Export orders are an indication of Taiwan’s exports in the next one to three months and the ministry’s latest data showed that the rate of expansion last month continued to decelerate from 43.66 percent in March, 36.25 percent in February and 71.81 percent in January, raising concerns that weaker growth momentum would have an impact on the actual shipments in the coming months.
PHOTO: PATRICK LIN, AFP
Hsu Chih-chiang (徐之強), an economics professor at National Central University, said yesterday that orders last month declined 0.63 percent month-on-month after seasonal adjustment, suggesting a “minor change in growth momentum.”
“However, orders for the current quarter will remain strong because of a relatively lower comparison base a year earlier. As for the outlook for the next two quarters, we have to see how the global economy develops, especially Europe,” Hsu said by telephone.
Among major export order items, precision equipment saw the biggest growth last month, surging 57.03 percent year-on-year to US$3.27 billion, the ministry said in its report.
By region, demand for Taiwanese products from Japan was especially strong last month, as export orders grew at an annual pace of 53.25 percent to US$3.8 billion, the report showed. China (including Hong Kong) remained the largest market for export orders last month, seeing annual growth of 40.7 percent to US$9.82 billion.
Export orders from Europe fell 11.04 percent to US$5.3 billion last month from the previous month, however, which Fung Tein-chi (馮田琪), deputy director-general of the ministry’s statistics department, attributed to debt problems in the eurozone and the falling value of the euro.
In comparison, orders from the US showed a monthly increase of 6.65 percent, orders from China (including Hong Kong) remained nearly unchanged from the previous month, while those from Japan dropped 4.86 percent from March.
The ministry’s data suggested “worrying signs from Europe,” Tony Phoo (符銘財), chief economist at Standard Chartered Bank, said in an e-mailed statement. “Overall, export orders data show cooling momentum into the second half [of the year], with the fallout from the Greek crisis having dampened demand from Europe.”
In the first four months of the year, export orders reached US$126.13 billion, up 45.21 percent from the same period a year earlier, the ministry’s report showed.
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