The nation’s exports rose 12.7 percent from a year earlier to a four-year high of US$27.77 billion last month, aided by the launches of next-generation electronic devices ahead of the high sales season, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.
The momentum might pick up further starting this month as Christmas and the Lunar New Year approach, analysts said.
“Apple Inc is due to launch its new iPhone next week, accounting for the strong demand for electronic parts used in mobile devices,” Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) told reporters.
Electronic components, which made up 34.7 percent of overall shipments, expanded 14.4 percent to a record-high US$9.64 billion last month, as the US technology giant is to release a redesign of the phone to mark its 10th anniversary.
Taiwanese firms supply chips, camera lenses, casings, touch panels and other critical components to Apple and other brands.
Semiconductors grew 15.9 percent to US$8.36 billion, constituting 86.7 percent of electronics shipments, the ministry’s report showed.
Rapidly emerging Internet of Things applications helped drive semiconductor demand, officials said.
Imports gained 6.9 percent to US$22.06 billion, resulting in a trade surplus of US$5.71 billion, a 43 percent spike from a year earlier, the report said.
Machinery tools reported the largest advance of 26.8 percent to a record US$2.28 billion, as automation gains acceptance and becomes more prevalent among firms worldwide, Tsai said.
Meanwhile, raw material price hikes lent support to mineral, chemical and plastic exports, the report said.
Major trade partners all purchased more Taiwanese goods, with exports to China growing 14.5 percent to US$11.39 billion, accounting for 41 percent of overall shipments, it said.
Shipments to ASEAN markets increased 19 percent to US$5.35 billion, while exports to Europe gained 7.1 percent to US$3.25 billion, it said.
For the first eight months, exports rose 12.5 percent to US$202.59 billion while imports grew 13.8 percent to US$168.69 billion, the report said.
The ministry dismissed concerns over a continued decline in capital equipment imports, saying that the retreat might not necessarily mean sluggish private investment, because capital equipment tends to last for a while.
“The government might actually have to increase export forecasts if the growth momentum sustains, as it likely will,” Tsai said.
SinoPac Securities Co (永豐金證券) shared the positive sentiment, saying that a stable global economy is favorable for electronics sales.
“The appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar might not hurt local exporters as the Chinese yuan, South Korean won and other emerging currencies also rallied,” SinoPac analyst Lexie Lin (林南君) said by telephone.
However, major local exporters took a hit in profitability from the strong NT dollar this year.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last