Export orders last month rose 4.38 percent from a year ago, marking the third consecutive month of single-digit growth as the eurozone debt crisis hit demand and the floods in Thailand affected the electronics supply chain, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
Fueled by the demand for tablets, smartphones and notebook computers, export orders expanded to US$37.21 billion last month, from US$35.75 billion in the same period last year, ministry data showed.
However, growth momentum is slowing: After rising 11.12 percent year-on-year in July to NT$37.59 billion, export order growth slowed to 5.26 percent at US$36.71 billion in August and 2.72 percent at US$36.96 billion in September.
Aside from a faltering European economy and the floods in Thailand, weaker demand from Japan, which is still reeling from an earthquake and tsunami in March, dragged down momentum, Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜), deputy-director of the ministry’s statistics department, told reporters.
Orders for electronics products reversed up, growing 1.03 percent to US$8.91 billion last month, as stronger sales of consumer electronics fueled orders for related components.
Orders for precision machinery — including LCD panels — rose for a second consecutive month by 4.51 percent to US$2.99 billion, as Taiwanese manufacturers cut production capacity to support prices, Tsai said.
Orders for information and communications products climbed 7.17 percent to US$9.88 billion, thanks to strong sales of consumer electronics gadgets, such as notebooks, tablets and smartphones, she added.
Export orders are an indication of Taiwan’s products and components shipments to overseas markets over the next one to three months.
Cumulative export orders from January to last month totaled US$363.17 billion, up 8.6 percent from the corresponding period last year, according to the ministry.
Despite the slowdown in growth in recent months, the ministry said it still expected full-year export orders to surpass last year’s record and reach NT$435 billion. Orders last year totaled US$406.7 billion.
Tsai said export orders were on track to meet the ministry’s full-year forecast given strong orders in the first half of the year.
By country, China topped the list with US$9.28 billion in orders last month, up 8.52 percent from a year ago.
Orders from the US rose 14.12 percent to US$8.88 billion, while those from Europe slid 0.78 percent to US$7.01 billion and those from Japan plunged 14.94 percent to US$3.67 billion.
The six ASEAN countries (Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam) ordered US$3.76 billion from Taiwan, a rise of 3.96 percent from last year.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six