The value of export orders dropped 4 percent annually to US$37.32 billion last month, as soft demand for handheld devices from China offset the demand for handheld devices from other regions, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
This is the first time the nation’s export order values dropped annually since July 2013, the ministry said. On a monthly basis, the value fell 2.9 percent from March’s US$38.43 billion.
“Export orders for electronics dropped 0.9 percent annually to US$9.67 billion last month for the first time since June 2013, mainly due to fewer orders for semiconductor products for handsets because of weakening demand in the Chinese market,” Department of Statistics Director-General Lin Lee-jen (林麗貞) told a news conference in Taipei.
The continuing decline in orders from Japan for televisions also dragged down the export performance for electronics products, she said.
Orders for information technology products grew 6.1 percent annually to US$10.05 billion last month, following 12.9 percent annual growth in the previous month, as the weak demand for PCs and tablets offset rising orders for handheld devices, Lin said.
The ministry’s report showed broader declines in export orders for electronics, precision instruments, basic metals, petrochemicals and machinery products last month from a year ago, with those for precision instruments falling 13.6 percent to US$2.37 billion due to the softening demand of flat-panels for PC and smartphones, Lin said.
Orders for machine products declined 5.3 percent annually to US$1.85 billion last month, the first annual decline in the past 15 months, as the yen and euro volatilities affected competitiveness of local machine products, she said.
The US was still the nation’s largest export destination by country, with orders growing 14 percent annually to US$10.59 billion last month, the ministry said.
Orders from China and Hong Kong plunged 10.3 percent to US9.17 billion from a year ago, the deepest annual decline since August 2009, the ministry said, because of the rising localization of supply chains in China.
The continuing decline in international crude oil prices also affected the export order values for Taiwanese petrochemical products to China because of the falling average selling prices, the ministry said.
The value of export orders is expected to rebound this month, Lin said, citing increasing demand for handheld devices to benefit Taiwan’s information technology products.
However, this month’s value is likely to be flat or decline slightly from last year’s US$38.02 billion because of a higher base last year and the lack of growth catalyst this month, she said.
Export order performance in the second half of this year will to be better, fueled by the upcoming launch of an international brand’s new smartphones, she said.
The number of Taiwanese working in the US rose to a record high of 137,000 last year, driven largely by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) rapid overseas expansion, according to government data released yesterday. A total of 666,000 Taiwanese nationals were employed abroad last year, an increase of 45,000 from 2023 and the highest level since the COVID-19 pandemic, data from the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) showed. Overseas employment had steadily increased between 2009 and 2019, peaking at 739,000, before plunging to 319,000 in 2021 amid US-China trade tensions, global supply chain shifts, reshoring by Taiwanese companies and
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) received about NT$147 billion (US$4.71 billion) in subsidies from the US, Japanese, German and Chinese governments over the past two years for its global expansion. Financial data compiled by the world’s largest contract chipmaker showed the company secured NT$4.77 billion in subsidies from the governments in the third quarter, bringing the total for the first three quarters of the year to about NT$71.9 billion. Along with the NT$75.16 billion in financial aid TSMC received last year, the chipmaker obtained NT$147 billion in subsidies in almost two years, the data showed. The subsidies received by its subsidiaries —
Shiina Ito has had fewer Chinese customers at her Tokyo jewelry shop since Beijing issued a travel warning in the wake of a diplomatic spat, but she said she was not concerned. A souring of Tokyo-Beijing relations this month, following remarks by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi about Taiwan, has fueled concerns about the impact on the ritzy boutiques, noodle joints and hotels where holidaymakers spend their cash. However, businesses in Tokyo largely shrugged off any anxiety. “Since there are fewer Chinese customers, it’s become a bit easier for Japanese shoppers to visit, so our sales haven’t really dropped,” Ito
OUTLOOK: Pat Gelsinger said he did not expect the heavy AI infrastructure investments by the major cloud service providers to cause an AI bubble to burst soon Building a resilient energy supply chain is crucial for Taiwan to develop artificial intelligence (AI) technology and grow its economy, former Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger said yesterday. Gelsinger, now a general partner at the US venture capital firm Playground Global LLC, was asked at a news conference in Taipei about his views on Taiwan’s hardware development and growing concern over an AI bubble. “Today, the greatest issue in Taiwan isn’t even in the software or in architecture. It is energy,” Gelsinger said. “You are not in the position to have a resilient energy supply chain, and that,
RSS