Export orders grew at a slower rate last month, but still expanded 2.72 percent year-on-year to US$36.96 billion. The growth rate was the lowest in 23 months.
The sluggish momentum was caused by weaker orders for electronics components such as semiconductors and memorychips, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
Orders for electronics slumped for the second consecutive month to minus 3.2 percent, mainly because Japan cut orders by as much as 20 percent, Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜), deputy-director of the ministry’s statistics department, told a press briefing.
Orders of precision machinery — namely LCD panels — grew 1.97 percent last month, from a rate of minus 4.99 percent growth in August, the ministry said.
Growth in orders of information and communications products narrowed to 2.89 percent last month, down from 9.88 percent in August.
That expansion was driven by demand for components and related products such as smartphones and tablets, the ministry said.
Export orders are an indication of products and component shipments to overseas markets over the next one to three months.
“The latest data indicate that orders picked up from the -previous month, but by just 0.6 percent month-on-month. Still, this will help alleviate concerns that orders [or exports] could further weaken ahead of the year-end holiday season,” Tony Phoo (符銘財), a Taipei-based economist at Standard Chartered Bank, said in a note.
As a whole, the ministry’s figures were a mixed batch that suggested export shipment growth, though not as strong as expected, is unlikely to be as weak as some had feared going into the fourth quarter, Phoo added.
Taiwan’s third-quarter export orders totaled US$111.26 billion, up 6.28 percent from the same period last year, but down 1 percent from the third quarter.
“This broke the seasonality pattern as the third quarter is normally bigger than the second quarter,” Tsai said.
Fourth-quarter orders should remain flat relative to the third quarter, especially given global economic uncertainties and the fact that fourth-quarter orders last year hit a record high, she said.
In terms of country breakdown, China placed US$9.73 billion of orders last month, marking year-on-year growth of 5.67 percent.
The US ordered 9.33 percent more at US$8.43 billion. In contrast, Europe ordered 2.22 percent less at US$6.82 billion and Japan’s orders plunged 13.19 percent to US$3.68 billion.
ASEAN countries ordered US$3.61 billion of goods — a rise of 5.09 percent from last year. Despite that, the growth in orders from ASEAN countries fell to single digits, amid weaker internal demand and sluggish exports to markets in the US and Europe, Tsai said.
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