Export orders last month declined 3 percent year-on-year to US$40.53 billion, falling for the ninth consecutive month, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
While orders of information and communications technology (ICT) products, the nation’s most lucrative category, slightly improved by 0.1 percent on a monthly basis, it declined by 3.2 percent on an annual basis to US$11.11 billion, the ministry said, blaming the annual decline on a relatively high comparison base last year.
“A lot of overseas clients rushed orders from July to September last year, when trade tensions between the US and China started to rise,” Statistics Department Director Huang Yu-ling (黃于玲) told a news conference.
However, Huang said that she expects positive year-on-year order growth for ICT products in the coming months.
Export orders of electronics last month declined by 1.3 percent year-on-year to US$10.56 billion due to clients’ inventory adjustments of DRAM chips and passive components, the ministry said.
“We are nevertheless seeing growth in demand for wafer foundry, wafer probe and packaging services,” Huang said. “Orders are picking up.”
Export orders of optical equipment declined 8.8 percent to US$1.93 billion as the industry continued to suffer the repercussions of an oversupply of LCD panels, the ministry said.
Orders of base metal products and machinery equipment also plummeted 16.1 percent and 19.7 percent to US$2.15 billion and US$1.67 billion respectively, reflecting the effects of US and European steel tariffs, and conservative investment among companies, the ministry said.
Export orders of petrochemicals and plastics/rubber slipped 5.3 percent and 7.4 percent to US$1.85 billion and US$1.92 billion respectively, the data showed.
Falling international crude oil prices and the effects of the US-China trade spat were the main culprits of the decline, the ministry said.
While export orders from the US, China, Hong Kong, Europe and ASEAN all decreased last month from a year earlier, those from Japan increased 0.7 percent due to strong demand for video game consoles and base metal products, it said.
Overall, export orders for the first seven months reached US$263.39 billion, down 6 percent year-on-year, it added.
“We expect export orders to improve this month, but the US-China trade conflict is still ongoing... There is a lot of uncertainty,” Huang said, adding that she remains optimistic as the electronics industry enters its peak season.
SEMICONDUCTORS: The German laser and plasma generator company will expand its local services as its specialized offerings support Taiwan’s semiconductor industries Trumpf SE + Co KG, a global leader in supplying laser technology and plasma generators used in chip production, is expanding its investments in Taiwan in an effort to deeply integrate into the global semiconductor supply chain in the pursuit of growth. The company, headquartered in Ditzingen, Germany, has invested significantly in a newly inaugurated regional technical center for plasma generators in Taoyuan, its latest expansion in Taiwan after being engaged in various industries for more than 25 years. The center, the first of its kind Trumpf built outside Germany, aims to serve customers from Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia and South Korea,
POWERING UP: PSUs for AI servers made up about 50% of Delta’s total server PSU revenue during the first three quarters of last year, the company said Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) reported record-high revenue of NT$161.61 billion (US$5.11 billion) for last quarter and said it remains positive about this quarter. Last quarter’s figure was up 7.6 percent from the previous quarter and 41.51 percent higher than a year earlier, and largely in line with Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co’s (元大投顧) forecast of NT$160 billion. Delta’s annual revenue last year rose 31.76 percent year-on-year to NT$554.89 billion, also a record high for the company. Its strong performance reflected continued demand for high-performance power solutions and advanced liquid-cooling products used in artificial intelligence (AI) data centers,
Gasoline and diesel prices at domestic fuel stations are to fall NT$0.2 per liter this week, down for a second consecutive week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to drop to NT$26.4, NT$27.9 and NT$29.9 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to fall to NT$24.8 per liter at CPC stations and NT$24.6 at Formosa pumps, they said. The price adjustments came even as international crude oil prices rose last week, as traders
SIZE MATTERS: TSMC started phasing out 8-inch wafer production last year, while Samsung is more aggressively retiring 8-inch capacity, TrendForce said Chipmakers are expected to raise prices of 8-inch wafers by up to 20 percent this year on concern over supply constraints as major contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co gradually retire less advanced wafer capacity, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. It is the first significant across-the-board price hike since a global semiconductor correction in 2023, the Taipei-based market researcher said in a report. Global 8-inch wafer capacity slid 0.3 percent year-on-year last year, although 8-inch wafer prices still hovered at relatively stable levels throughout the year, TrendForce said. The downward trend is expected to continue this year,
RSS