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.
EXPANSION: The investment came as ASE in July told investors it would accelerate capacity growth to mitigate supply issues, and would boost spending by 16 percent ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip assembly and testing service provider, yesterday said it is investing NT$17.6 billion (US$578.6 million) to build a new advanced chip packaging facility in Kaohsiung to cope with fast-growing demand from artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance-computing (HPC) and automotive applications. The new fab, called K18B, is to commence operation in the first quarter of 2028, offering chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) chip packaging and final testing services, ASE said in a statement. The fab is to create 2,000 new jobs upon its completion, ASE said. A wide spectrum of system-level chip packaging technologies would be available at
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves hit a record high at the end of last month, surpassing the US$600 billion mark for the first time, the central bank said yesterday. Last month, the country’s foreign exchange reserves rose US$5.51 billion from a month earlier to reach US$602.94 billion due to an increase in returns from the central bank’s portfolio management, the movement of other foreign currencies in the portfolio against the US dollar and the bank’s efforts to smooth the volatility of the New Taiwan dollar. Department of Foreign Exchange Director-General Eugene Tsai (蔡炯民)said a rate cut cycle launched by the US Federal Reserve
HEAVYWEIGHT: The TAIEX ended up 382.67 points, with about 280 of those points contributed by TSMC shares alone, which rose 2.56 percent to close at NT$1,400 Shares in Taiwan broke records at the end of yesterday’s session after contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) hit a fresh closing-high amid enthusiasm toward artificial intelligence (AI) development, dealers said. The TAIEX ended up 382.67 points, or 1.45 percent, at the day’s high of 26,761.06. Turnover totaled NT$463.09 billion (US$15.22 billion). “The local main board has repeatedly hit new closing highs in the past few sessions as investors continued to embrace high hopes about AI applications, taking cues from a strong showing in shares of US-based AI chip designer Nvidia Corp,” Hua Nan Securities Co (華南永昌證券) analyst Kevin Su
Nvidia Corp’s major server production partner Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) reported 10.99 percent year-on-year growth in quarterly sales, signaling healthy demand for artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure. Revenue totaled NT$2.06 trillion (US$67.72 billion) in the last quarter, in line with analysts’ projections, a company statement said. On a quarterly basis, revenue was up 14.47 percent. Hon Hai’s businesses cover four primary product segments: cloud and networking, smart consumer electronics, computing, and components and other products. Last quarter, “cloud and networking products delivered strong growth, components and other products demonstrated significant growth, while smart consumer electronics and computing products slightly declined,” compared with the
RSS