The nation’s export orders grew on a yearly basis for the fourth straight month to US$38.02 billion last month as robust demand for handsets continued driving orders for electronic components and also contract manufacturing services, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
The ministry said steady global economic recovery and a low comparison base are also major causes for the consecutive growth in orders last month, as export performance is highly connected to the state of the global economy.
While orders increased 4.7 percent from US$36.33 billion during the same period of last year, they reflected a 2.2 percent drop from US$38.87 billion in April, ministry statistics showed.
Cumulative orders in the January-to-May period expanded 4.4 percent to US$181.64 billion from US$174.04 billion recorded in the same period of last year.
“Tech firms’ launch of new handset products that feature better specifications, but lower prices, are going to keep driving the market, which helps makers of electronic components sustain their growth in orders,” Lin Lee-jen (林麗貞), director of the ministry’s statistics department, told a press conference.
“Electronics are expected to remain a major driver of the nation’s export orders through the second half of the year, as demand for mobile devices remains vigorous in emerging markets,” she added.
Lin said orders for electronics — the nation’s top export item, covering semiconductors — increased 12.6 percent year-on-year to US$9.52 billion last month.
Orders for information and communication products — Taiwan’s No. 2 export item — rose 2.7 percent annually to US$9.48 billion, due largely to increased orders for PCs and computer peripherals, and also orders for contract handset manufacturing services, she said.
However, due to weaker-than-expected demand for panels used in flatscreen TVs and touch-enabled notebook computers, orders for precision equipment fell for 13 straight months by 11.8 percent year-on-year to US$2.68 billion last month.
Intense pricing competition initiated by Chinese and South Korean panelmakers was another major factor behind the drop, Lin said, adding that orders for precision equipment fell the most from China and Hong Kong — by up to US$230 million last month on a yearly basis.
Overall, China and Hong Kong together remain the nation’s top export destination, with orders totaling US$10.16 billion, followed by the US with US$9.3 billion, Europe with US$6.15 billion, ASEAN member countries with US$4.62 billion and Japan with US$3.2 billion.
For this month, Lin forecast orders would grow by more than 5 percent from US$35.09 billion a year ago.
According to the ministry’s survey, 20.3 percent of firms forecast orders would increase this month from last month, while 60 percent projected the volume would flatten and another 19.7 percent predicted a sequential drop.
WASHINGTON’S INCENTIVES: The CHIPS Act set aside US$39 billion in direct grants to persuade the world’s top semiconductor companies to make chips on US soil The US plans to award more than US$6 billion to Samsung Electronics Co, helping the chipmaker expand beyond a project in Texas it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said. The money from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act would be one of several major awards that the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce in the coming weeks, including a grant of more than US$5 billion to Samsung’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with the plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcements. The federal funding for
HIGH DEMAND: The firm has strong capabilities of providing key components including liquid cooling technology needed for AI servers, chairman Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday revised its revenue outlook for this year to “significant” growth from a “neutral” view forecast five months ago, due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers from cloud service providers. Hon Hai, a major assembler of iPhones that is also known as Foxconn, expects AI server revenues to soar more than 40 percent annually this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors. The robust growth would uplift revenue contribution from AI servers to 40 percent of the company’s overall server revenue this year, from 30 percent last year, Liu said. In the three-year period
LONG HAUL: Largan Energy Materials’ TNO-based lithium-ion batteries are expected to charge in five minutes and last about 20 years, far surpassing conventional technology Largan Precision Co (大立光) has formed a joint venture with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) to produce fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobile electronics and electric storage units, the camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones said yesterday. Largan Energy Materials Co (萬溢能源材料), established in January, is developing high-energy, fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries using titanium niobium oxide (TNO) anodes, it said. TNO-based batteries can be fully charged in five minutes and have a lifespan of 20 years, a major advantage over the two to four hours of charging time needed for conventional graphite-anode-based batteries, Largan said in a
Taiwan is one of the first countries to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, but because that is largely down to a single company it also represents a risk, former Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said at an AI forum in Taipei yesterday. Speaking at the forum on how generative AI can generate possibilities for all walks of life, Chien said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — currently among the world’s 10 most-valuable companies due to continued optimism about AI — ensures Taiwan is one of the economies to benefit most from AI. “This is because AI is