Exports rose 9.4 percent to US$24.32 billion last month from a year earlier, with growth decelerating from March’s 13.2 percent, as demand for electronics used in smartphones and TVs slowed in China, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.
Despite inventory adjustments, outbound shipments are expected to continue expanding at a high single-digit percentage this month and beyond, amid a stable economic recovery worldwide, the ministry said.
“Demand for smartphones and large-sized TVs turned out weaker than expected over the Labor Day sales season, prompting firms to adjust inventory,” Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) said.
The Chinese market accounted for 39.5 percent of Taiwanese exports and 50 percent of all electronics shipments, Tsai said.
Electronics underpinned exports with a 31.4 percent contribution last month, led by demand for semiconductors, Tsai said, citing the ministry’s monthly report.
Imports of semiconductor equipment rose 80.9 percent last month from a year earlier, indicating that growth momentum for semiconductors remain strong, Tsai said.
Imports expanded at a faster pace of 23.5 percent to US$21.53 billion last month from a year earlier, shrinking the trade surplus to US$2.78 billion, a decrease of 41.9 percent from the same period last year, the report showed.
The trend could help downsize the nation’s current account surplus, one of the main reasons the US Department of the Treasury keeps Taiwan on its currency monitoring list.
Exports to all major trading partners rose and all product categories registered increases, with the exception of textile products due to a seasonal slowdown, the report said.
Shipments to ASEAN markets gained faster momentum, rising 14.1 percent year-on-year to US$4.59 billion last month, the report said, as Taiwanese firms increasingly shift production activity to Southeast Asia.
The migration has helped spur demand for Taiwanese machinery tools, which might receive a further boost as more manufacturers worldwide replace human labor with automation to improve productivity and cut labor costs, Tsai said.
For the first four months of the year, exports expanded 13.6 percent to US$96.42 billion, while imports gained 22.1 percent to US$82.86 billion, the report said.
The cumulative trade surplus amounted to US$13.56 billion, a drop of 20.4 percent from the same period last year.
Tsai declined to speculate on inventory demand related to Apple Inc’s next-generation mobile devices, saying local firms have not given any clues and the ministry is not in a position to tell.
Foreign-exchange volatility and growing competition from Chinese exporters pose downside risks, she said.
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
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day