The nation’s export orders contracted 5.8 percent year-on-year to US$33.73 billion last month, less than the government’s estimated fall of 7 percent, due to a pickup in demand for smartphones and notebooks, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
The figure marks the 14th consecutive month of falls, but the pace eased from April’s 11.1 percent fall.
On a monthly basis, export orders expanded 1.7 percent from NT$33.16 billion (US$1.03 billion) in April, the data showed.
“The increasing demand for smartphones and 4G handset chips in emerging markets was the main stimulus,” ministry Department of Statistics Director-General Lin Lee-jen (林麗貞) said at a news conference.
Lin said improving demand for notebooks from Europe also helped shrink the decline last month.
Orders for information and communications technology and electronic goods, the pillars of overall export orders, climbed 3.6 percent and 1.9 percent month-on-month respectively, the data showed.
The year-on-year decline for information and communications terchnology and electronic products moderated to 3.5 percent and 3.1 percent respectively, from an almost 10 percent drop in April, the data showed.
Orders for stainless steel grew 2.6 percent monthly, but dropped 4.1 percent annually last month, as customers placed more orders before an anticipated increase in average selling prices, Lin said.
Lin said the demand and selling prices of panel products improved last month, raising overall export orders for precision instruments by 3.5 percent from April.
That marks the third consecutive monthly increase for precision instrument orders, indicating improving demand for the nation’s panel products, Lin said.
However, due to the persistently low global crude oil prices, orders for petrochemical products dropped 8.3 percent annually and 4.2 percent monthly to US$1.56 billion last month, Lin sid.
By destination, the year-on-year declines in orders from the US, Europe, China and Hong Kong, last month all narrowed to low single-digit percentages from the double-digit percentages recorded in April, Lin said.
“The improvements were supported by increasing orders for information and communications technology and electronic goods,” Lin said.
The US remained the largest export order destination, with orders falling 4 percent annually, but expanding 0.1 percent monthly to US$9.39 billion last month, ministry data showed.
Orders from China and Hong Kong totaled US$8.41 billion last month, falling 6.4 percent annually, but climbing 2.9 percent from April, the data showed.
Export orders are to continue to expand this month from last month’s US$33.73 billion, on the back of improving demand for smartphones, stainless steel and panel products, Lin said, citing the ministry’s monthly survey of local makers.
“Export orders will be from US$33.8 billion to US$34.3 billion this month, based on the survey,” Lin said.
In Italy’s storied gold-making hubs, jewelers are reworking their designs to trim gold content as they race to blunt the effect of record prices and appeal to shoppers watching their budgets. Gold prices hit a record high on Thursday, surging near US$5,600 an ounce, more than double a year ago as geopolitical concerns and jitters over trade pushed investors toward the safe-haven asset. The rally is putting undue pressure on small artisans as they face mounting demands from customers, including international brands, to produce cheaper items, from signature pieces to wedding rings, according to interviews with four independent jewelers in Italy’s main
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has talked up the benefits of a weaker yen in a campaign speech, adopting a tone at odds with her finance ministry, which has refused to rule out any options to counter excessive foreign exchange volatility. Takaichi later softened her stance, saying she did not have a preference for the yen’s direction. “People say the weak yen is bad right now, but for export industries, it’s a major opportunity,” Takaichi said on Saturday at a rally for Liberal Democratic Party candidate Daishiro Yamagiwa in Kanagawa Prefecture ahead of a snap election on Sunday. “Whether it’s selling food or
CONCERNS: Tech companies investing in AI businesses that purchase their products have raised questions among investors that they are artificially propping up demand Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday said that the company would be participating in OpenAI’s latest funding round, describing it as potentially “the largest investment we’ve ever made.” “We will invest a great deal of money,” Huang told reporters while visiting Taipei. “I believe in OpenAI. The work that they do is incredible. They’re one of the most consequential companies of our time.” Huang did not say exactly how much Nvidia might contribute, but described the investment as “huge.” “Let Sam announce how much he’s going to raise — it’s for him to decide,” Huang said, referring to OpenAI
Nvidia Corp’s negotiations to invest as much as US$100 billion in OpenAI have broken down, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported, exposing a potential rift between two of the most powerful companies in the artificial intelligence (AI) industry. The discussions stalled after some inside Nvidia expressed concerns about the transaction, the WSJ reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the deliberations. OpenAI makes the popular chatbot ChatGPT, while Nvidia dominates the market for AI processors that help develop such software. The companies announced the agreement in September last year, saying at the time that they had signed a letter of intent for a strategic
RSS