It is never too early to start your Christmas shopping and Asian nations are starting to benefit. Exports from the region are recovering as demand from the US and other developed economies picks up.
Taiwan’s export orders to the US rose 20.5 percent last month from August and were up 0.6 percent from the previous year. Shipments from China to the US rose 6.7 percent last month from the previous year, while Japan’s gained 10.4 percent year-on-year.
“Improvements in export data across the regional supply chain show promising signs that demand is returning within certain industries, like electronics and automobiles,” said Leong Wai Ho (梁偉豪), a Singapore-based economist at Barclays PLC.
Photo: Pichi Chuang, Reuters
The increasing shipments “are likely to set the stage for a later pickup in consumer demand from developed markets, namely US and Europe, in the coming months as we approach the pre-festive stocking period,” he said.
One bright spot is the electronics sector — Singapore’s shipments rose 5.7 percent last month from the previous year, helping the city-state’s overall exports beat forecasts.
The release of Apple Inc’s iPhone 6S last month gave Taiwan’s exports a significant boost as companies such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) are integral to the supply chain of the devices, Hong-Kong based Natixis SA senior economist Trinh Nguyen wrote in a client note.
Taiwan’s export orders for information and communication products — primarily smartphones — expanded 37.3 percent month-on-month and 5.4 percent year-on-year to US$13.55 billion last month, the Ministry of Economic Affairs reported on Tuesday.
Last month, Taiwan’s overall export orders declined at a slower-than-expected pace of 4.5 percent annually to US$41.5 billion, following a contraction of 8.3 percent in August, ministry data showed.
“While the demand for the new smartphones and the upcoming holiday season could boost export orders in the coming months, it is too early to conclude that this is the start of a more sustained recovery,” Hong Kong-based HSBC economist John Zhu (朱日平) said in a client note on Tuesday.
“The external trade environment continues to remain challenging, with a sluggish pace of global recovery and the weakness in the mainland [China]. The sales to inventory ratio continues to fall and still point to cuts in production,” he added.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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