Export orders last month rose to a new record high, as Taiwan’s technology suppliers entered their peak season ahead of their clients’ consumer product launches, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
The value of export orders last month rose 4.5 percent sequentially and 7.1 percent annually to US$43.68 billion, besting the ministry’s forecast of 2.5 percent and 5 percent respectively.
Export orders are expected to continue to rise next month to between US$48 billion and US$49.2 billion, Department of Statistics Director-General Lin Lee-jen (林麗貞) told a news conference.
Cumulative orders in the first eight months of this year totaled US$323.91 billion, up 6.9 percent or US$20.79 billion from a year earlier, Lin said.
This year’s export orders are on track to exceed US$500 billion, Lin said.
New product launches, such as Apple Inc’s smartphones and smartwatches, as well as strong demand for servers, pushed information and communications technology (ICT) orders last month to US$11.59 billion, rising 1 percent sequentially and 10 percent annually.
The new product launches have also boosted orders across the supply chain, driving exports of electronics goods, including chips, memory, passive modules and printed circuit boards, to rise 8 percent sequentially and 9.6 percent annually to US$11.56 billion.
In the first eight months of the year, ICT orders rose 1.9 percent annually to US$86.49 billion, while electronic goods rose 6.9 percent to US$83.36 billion, the ministry said.
Export orders in traditional sectors were mixed, with basic metals seeing a slight decline due to higher tariffs in the US and Europe, while high inventory levels dampened demand for plastics.
Machinery orders posted a 5.9 percent sequential gain last month, thanks to robust demand for automation equipment from display panel makers, while petrochemical orders climbed 2.6 percent monthly on the back of rising oil prices.
However, an escalating US-China trade war would continue to sow uncertainty for the nation’s exports, especially ICT goods, Lin said.
“Companies with manufacturing bases in Taiwan would be less affected by the trade dispute, and some could even benefit from additional orders as customers avoid Chinese-made products,” she said.
Lin said that 53.2 percent of the goods supplied by Taiwanese exporters are manufactured abroad, of which 47.9 percent came from their production bases in China.
Part of the gains in export orders last month was driven by rush orders from companies aiming to stock up inventory before US tariffs on Chinese goods are raised from 10 percent to 25 percent next year, she said.
RUN IT BACK: A succesful first project working with hyperscalers to design chips encouraged MediaTek to start a second project, aiming to hit stride in 2028 MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip supplier, yesterday said it is engaging a second hyperscaler to help design artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators used in data centers following a similar project expected to generate revenue streams soon. The first AI accelerator project is to bring in US$1 billion revenue next year and several billion US dollars more in 2027, MediaTek chief executive officer Rick Tsai (蔡力行) told a virtual investor conference yesterday. The second AI accelerator project is expected to contribute to revenue beginning in 2028, Tsai said. MediaTek yesterday raised its revenue forecast for the global AI accelerator used
TEMPORARY TRUCE: China has made concessions to ease rare earth trade controls, among others, while Washington holds fire on a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods China is effectively suspending implementation of additional export controls on rare earth metals and terminating investigations targeting US companies in the semiconductor supply chain, the White House announced. The White House on Saturday issued a fact sheet outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier in the week by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) that aimed to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Under the deal, China is to issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite “for the benefit of US end users and their suppliers
Dutch chipmaker Nexperia BV’s China unit yesterday said that it had established sufficient inventories of finished goods and works-in-progress, and that its supply chain remained secure and stable after its parent halted wafer supplies. The Dutch company suspended supplies of wafers to its Chinese assembly plant a week ago, calling it “a direct consequence of the local management’s recent failure to comply with the agreed contractual payment terms,” Reuters reported on Friday last week. Its China unit called Nexperia’s suspension “unilateral” and “extremely irresponsible,” adding that the Dutch parent’s claim about contractual payment was “misleading and highly deceptive,” according to a statement
Artificial intelligence (AI) giant Nvidia Corp’s most advanced chips would be reserved for US companies and kept out of China and other countries, US President Donald Trump said. During an interview that aired on Sunday on CBS’ 60 Minutes program and in comments to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said only US customers should have access to the top-end Blackwell chips offered by Nvidia, the world’s most valuable company by market capitalization. “The most advanced, we will not let anybody have them other than the United States,” he told CBS, echoing remarks made earlier to reporters as he returned to Washington
RSS