Export orders last month dipped 6.7 percent from December and 6 percent from a year earlier to US$40.49 billion, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
Orders dropped for a third straight month last month and are likely to remain weak this month, partly due to fewer working days because of the Lunar New Year holiday.
Add in weaker-than-expected demand and depressed oil and commodity prices, export orders are expected to reach between US$31 billion and US$32 billion, translating to a monthly decline of between 21 and 23.4 percent, and an annual drop of 1.4 to 4.5 percent, Department of Statistics Director-General Lin Lee-jen (林麗貞) told a news conference.
The annual pace of decline seems to be subsiding, with last month’s number besting the department’s forecast of a 10 percent fall and December’s 10.5 percent drop, Lin said.
While lackluster smartphone sales affected Taiwan’s technology sector, recent price cuts, promotional efforts and upcoming model launches helped entice purchases, Lin said.
Steady demand for high-speed computing, automotive electronics, artificial intelligence and Internet of Things applications should continue to support tech orders, she said.
Washington and Beijing appear to be making progress toward easing trade tensions, but it is still too early to determine when investment and consumption sentiment would rebound, she added.
A breakdown of last month’s orders by destination showed that orders from the US fell 5.3 percent annually to US$11.18 billion, while those from China and Hong Kong registered a 14.4 percent drop to US$9.8 billion, and Europe fell 1.4 percent to US$8.63 billion.
Separately, three more companies have been approved to join a program to encourage the return of overseas Taiwanese companies, bringing in nearly NT$7 billion (US$227 million) in additional inbound investments, the ministry said.
Taiwan Union Technology Corp (台燿), one of the biggest Taiwanese manufacturers of copper clad laminates for printed-circuit boards, is investing NT$3.5 billion to diversify its production outside of China as part of its preparations to tap into higher-margin opportunities in the race to build 5G networks.
The company is planning to purchase land in Hsinchu to produce leading-edge 5G materials to shorten its production lead time with partners and customers.
Coremax Corp (康普), which manufactures petrochemical catalysts and electronic materials for electric vehicle batteries, is set to invest NT$2 billion to expand its production capacity in Hsinchu and set up a new facility in Miaoli.
Chumpower Machinery Corp (銓寶), a supplier of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) blow molding machines to major global beverage brands, is investing NT$1.2 billion to build and implement smart manufacturing technologies at its upcoming precision parts production plant in the Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區).
STRONG INTEREST: Analysts have pointed to optimism in TSMC’s growth prospects in the artificial intelligence era as the cause of the rising number of shareholders The number of people holding shares of chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) hit a new high last week despite a decline in its stock price, the Taiwan Depository and Clearing Corp (TDCC, 台灣集保) said. The number of TSMC shareholders rose to 2.46 million as of Friday, up 75,536 from a week earlier, TDCC data showed. The stock price fell 1.34 percent during the same week to close at NT$1,840 (US$57.55). The decline in TSMC’s share price resulted from volatility in global tech stocks, driven by rising international crude oil prices as the war against Iran continues. Dealers said
PRICE HIKES: The war in the Middle East would not significantly disrupt supply in the short term, but semiconductor companies are facing price surges for materials Taiwan’s semiconductor companies are not facing imminent supply disruptions of essential chemicals or raw materials due to the war in the Middle East, but surges in material costs loom large, industry association SEMI Taiwan said yesterday. The association’s comments came amid growing concerns that supplies of helium and other key raw materials used in semiconductor production could become a choke point after Qatar shut down its liquefied natural gas (LNG) production and helium output earlier this month due to the conflict. Qatar is the second-largest LNG supplier in the world and accounts for about 33 percent of global helium output. Helium is
China is clamping down on fertilizer exports to protect its domestic market, industry sources said, putting an additional strain on global markets that were already grappling with shortages caused by the US-Israeli war on Iran. China is among the largest fertilizer exporters — shipping more than US$13 billion of it last year — and it has a history of controlling exports to keep prices low for farmers. Shipments through the war-blocked Strait of Hormuz account for about one-third of the sea-borne supply. This month, Beijing banned exports of nitrogen-potassium fertilizer blends and certain phosphate varieties, sources said. The ban, which has not
AMAZING ABUNDANCE: Elon Musk has announced plans for a new facility in Texas which would manufacture chips for Tesla and SpaceX to use in robotics and AI Elon Musk said his Terafab project — a grand plan to eventually manufacture his own chips for robotics, artificial intelligence (AI) and space data centers — would be built in Austin and jointly run by Tesla Inc and Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX). Musk, the chief executive officer of the two companies, said he would start off with an “advanced technology fab” in Austin that would have all of the equipment necessary to make chips of any kind. The project would call for one day supporting 1 terawatt (TW) of computing power per year, the amount Musk expects the companies to
RSS