Exports orders last month fell 2.1 percent annually and 2.7 percent from October to US$47.68 billion, ending four months of consecutive gains as concerns about trade tensions, slowing global economic growth and falling raw material prices stifled momentum, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
Amid global headwinds, last month’s outcome was worse than forecast, Department of Statistics Director-General Lin Lee-jen (林麗貞) told a news conference in Taipei.
At the end of last month, volatility in crude oil prices also pressured raw material prices, resulting in the first annual decline in basic metal export orders by value since the beginning of the year.
The category fell 2.7 percent from October and 5.9 percent from the same period last year to US$2.4 billion as buyers trimmed orders and braced for rising protectionism, with demand seeing the fastest decline in the US, Hong Kong and Europe.
The year-end peak season for new product launches also failed to lift export orders for information and communications technology (ICT) and electronics.
ICT export orders last month were flat from last year at US$16.25 billion, while electronics dropped 3.5 percent from the same period last year to US$12.2 billion, due to longer smartphone upgrade cycles and falling memory prices, while a massive correction in cryptocurrencies continued to depress demand for mining chips.
In the first 11 months, ICT export orders rose 5.4 percent annually to US$134.67 billion, while electronics logged a 6 percent annual rise to US$121.22 billion.
Gains in cloud computing the network equipment were partly offset by slowing demand for laptop computers, the department said.
Optoelectronics orders fell 7.5 percent last month from October and 8.6 percent annually in the first 11 months of the year to US$22.63 billion due to excess inventory and sluggish TV sales, but a small uptick in smartphone display backlight orders helped offset some of the decline, the department said, adding that the sector would continue to be challenged by a supply glut.
Businesses have also turned more pessimistic about their outlooks, with 27.6 percent expecting export orders to continue declining this month, up from 24.8 percent foreseeing a drop a month earlier, a survey by the department showed.
While the proportion of businesses hoping to increase their export orders this month inched up to 16.9 percent from 15.7 percent, the proportion of businesses aiming to maintain orders at current levels fell to 55.6 percent, from 59.5 percent, the survey showed.
The department expects export orders to fall by 4.1 to 6.1 percent this month to between US$45.5 billion and US$46.5 billion, Lin said.
In regional terms, orders from the US and Japan continued to log growth, while Chinese orders fell by a marked 8.9 percent compared with last year, Lin said.
China-bound export orders from Japan and North Korea have also fallen, possibly indicating slowing economic growth in China, she said.
While trade shocks are likely to affect exports until next year, they are part of cyclical swings, Lin said.
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
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
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last