Exports rose 16.7 percent last month from a year ago, bringing first-quarter exports to a record high, thanks to strong global demand for information and communications products, mechanical products and chemical and textile goods made by Taiwanese firms, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.
Last month, exports hit a fresh monthly high of US$27.25 billion, with first-quarter exports totaling US$73.83 billion, up 19.5 percent from a year earlier, the ministry’s data showed.
“The growth of exports in the first quarter came from stronger international demand for products made by local companies amid continuing global economic recovery,” Lin Lee-jen (林麗貞), director of the ministry’s statistics department, told a media briefing.
Photo: AFP
Lin attributed robust demand for smartphones made by Taiwanese companies to boosting electronics exports last quarter, adding that price hikes in global commodities helped drive up plastics exports.
Exports of electronic and plastic goods were two of the fastest growing sectors in the first quarter, the ministry said.
Exports to China and Hong Kong, the US, Europe and the six ASEAN emerging markets all hit new highs in the first quarter, with exports to ASEAN markets growing the fastest, Lin said.
Exports to ASEAN markets climbed 34.2 percent from a year earlier to US$12.13 billion in the first quarter, while those to China and Hong Kong — Taiwan’s largest trading market — expanded 14.3 percent year-on-year to US$30.19 billion, the ministry’s data showed.
Furthermore, seven of 11 local major exporting sectors, including the electronics, metals, plastics, chemicals, mechanical, mineral and transportation areas, marked their highest-ever exports in the first quarter, data showed.
Donna Kwok (郭浩庄), economist for Greater China at HSBC Asia, said in a research note that Taiwan’s successful export results were not a big surprise given the huge jump in South Korea’s export numbers released earlier for the same month.
However, the momentum for local exports is set to moderate in the near-term as demand in the West starts to roll over, Kwok said.
Since Taiwan remains a high beta economy heavily reliant on external demand, Kwok expected the central bank to maintain its pace and hike the policy rate by another bite-sized 12.5 basis points in June.
Imports rose 16.7 percent from a year earlier to stand at US$25.48 billion last month, also the strongest level ever, bringing first-quarter imports to a fresh high of US$69.26 billion, the ministry’s statistics showed.
Imports of capital equipment totaled US$10.65 billion in the first quarter, while consumer goods imports stood at US$5.3 billion, both record highs, indicating continuing strong momentum for fixed investment and private consumption, Lin said.
The trade surplus increased 15.9 percent to US$1.77 billion last month from a year ago. Taiwan accumulated US$4.57 billion in trade surplus in the first three months, down 7.2 percent from the same period last 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],”
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
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