Export orders hit a record US$406.7 billion last year, thanks to strong international demand for Taiwanese notebooks, smartphones, tablet PCs and related components, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
The figure expanded 26.1 percent from 2009, the highest growth rate in six years, the ministry said.
Export orders are an indication of component shipments to overseas markets over the next one to three months.
December export orders, valued at US$36.6 billion, were also at a record high in terms of monthly breakdown.
Last month’s high was attributed to demand for the Lunar New Year buying spree, rising raw material costs and a recovering global economy, Huang Ji-shih (黃吉實), director of the ministry’s statistics department, told a press briefing.
Last year, flat panels and DRAM chips were hot during the first half, while chemicals, rubber and -plastics were popular in the second half, he said.
“That was a change of seasonality pattern last year,” Huang said.
In the past, the third quarter saw the highest orders because of the Christmas effect in the US and Europe. However, the fourth quarter of last year was equally strong because of the “China effect.”
China, Taiwan’s largest export market, has increasingly placed more orders in the fourth quarter to meet Lunar New Year demand.
“This clearly reflected the differences in terms of the underlying strength and pace of recovery between Asia and developed economies in the West,” Standard Chartered Bank (Taiwan) Ltd said in a note yesterday.
The improvement in orders from China last month was in line with reports from major tech exporters that are generally optimistic of the outlook for the first quarter, it said.
“It would also help lift exporters’ confidence, leading to increase capital spending that would be supportive to jobs in the manufacturing sector,” the note said.
The ministry said China placed US$109.1 billion in orders from Taiwan last year, surpassing the US$100 billion mark for the first time and marking a year-on-year growth of 27.2 percent.
The US ordered 18.8 percent more from Taiwan last year to reach US$86.7 billion, while Europe ordered 24.7 percent more at US$71.7 billion.
Huang singled out the strong orders growth from Japan, which placed 37.8 percent more orders from Taiwan last year at US$47.7 billion.
“Japan had strong demand for Taiwan’s electronics as well as information and communications products. The rising yen also prompted it to source cheaper components from Taiwan,” he said.
In terms of product breakdown, international orders for Taiwan’s electronic components, which consist primarily of semiconductors such as memory chips, rose 27 percent to US$99.4 billion last year.
Orders for information and communications products — comprising handsets and notebooks — advanced 26.8 percent from a year earlier to US$100.6 billion last month.
Global orders for precision machinery — mainly LCD panels — rose 30.2 percent to US$36.7 billion, according to the ministry’s statistics.
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