The nation’s exports contracted 2.8 percent last month from a year earlier, as demand for electronic devices peaked in October and slumping crude oil prices sidelined buyers, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.
The decline surprised the market, as economists from different institutes had projected a modest increase for the Christmas season.
Outbound shipments totaled US$25.65 billion last month, shrinking 2.8 percent from the level a year prior, dragged by sluggish demand for mineral, chemical and plastic products, Department of Statistics Director Yeh Maan-tzwu (葉滿足) said.
International crude oil prices dropped below US$60 per barrel last month, driving buyers to delay purchasing oil-related products on expectations of further price corrections, Yeh said.
As a result, mineral exports tumbled 39.7 percent last month from a year earlier, while plastics and chemical exports declined 12.3 percent and 5.1 percent respectively, the ministry said. The three sectors accounted for 21.1 percent of total exports last month.
Electronics shipments grew 9.7 percent to US$8.43 billion last month, chiefly on sustained demand for semiconductors that helped buffer the impact of tumbling oil prices, although the growth momentum in electronics has slowed since October last year, Yeh said.
Shipments to the US rose 14.6 percent to US$3.08 billion last month, but decelerated by single-digit percentages elsewhere across the world, in line with uncertainty in Europe, Japan, China and other emerging markets, the report said.
Imports declined by a faster pace of 12.3 percent to US$21.1 billion last month, widening the trade surplus to US$4.45 billion, from US$4.22 billion in November last year, the report said.
For the whole of last year, exports gained 2.7 percent to a record high of US$313.84 billion, thanks to a double-digit increase in electronics shipments. However, last year’s growth still lagged behind the 5.77 percent increase forecast by the government in November.
The ministry expects export figures to improve this month because of a low base last year caused by holiday disruptions.
The strong US economy will lend further support to local technology firms, Taipei-based Standard Chartered economist Tony Phoo (符明財) said.
“The electronics, information and telecommunications sectors posted an 8.5 gain last month, suggesting a positive tech trend this year,” Phoo said in a client note.
The trend is favorable for the related sectors that weigh more than 30 percent of the export makeup, he said.
FALLING BEHIND: Samsung shares have declined more than 20 percent this year, as the world’s largest chipmaker struggles in key markets and plays catch-up to rival SK Hynix Samsung Electronics Co is laying off workers in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand as part of a plan to reduce its global headcount by thousands of jobs, sources familiar with the situation said. The layoffs could affect about 10 percent of its workforces in those markets, although the numbers for each subsidiary might vary, said one of the sources, who asked not to be named because the matter is private. Job cuts are planned for other overseas subsidiaries and could reach 10 percent in certain markets, the source said. The South Korean company has about 147,000 in staff overseas, more than half
TECH PARTNERSHIP: The deal with Arizona-based Amkor would provide TSMC with advanced packing and test capacities, a requirement to serve US customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is collaborating with Amkor Technology Inc to provide local advanced packaging and test capacities in Arizona to address customer requirements for geographical flexibility in chip manufacturing. As part of the agreement, TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, would contract turnkey advanced packaging and test services from Amkor at their planned facility in Peoria, Arizona, a joint statement released yesterday said. TSMC would leverage these services to support its customers, particularly those using TSMC’s advanced wafer fabrication facilities in Phoenix, Arizona, it said. The companies would jointly define the specific packaging technologies, such as TSMC’s Integrated
An Indian factory producing iPhone components resumed work yesterday after a fire that halted production — the third blaze to disrupt Apple Inc’s local supply chain since the start of last year. Local industrial behemoth Tata Group’s plant in Tamil Nadu, which was shut down by the unexplained fire on Saturday, is a key linchpin of Apple’s nascent supply chain in the country. A spokesperson for subsidiary Tata Electronics Pvt yesterday said that the company would restart work in “many areas of the facility today.” “We’ve been working diligently since Saturday to support our team and to identify the cause of the fire,”
Sales RecORD: Hon Hai’s consolidated sales rose by about 20 percent last quarter, while Largan, another Apple supplier, saw quarterly sales increase by 17 percent IPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Saturday reported its highest-ever quarterly sales for the third quarter on the back of solid global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) globally, said it posted NT$1.85 trillion (US$57.93 billion) in consolidated sales in the July-to-September quarter, up 19.46 percent from the previous quarter and up 20.15 percent from a year earlier. The figure beat the previous third-quarter high of NT$1.74 trillion recorded in 2022, company data showed. Due to rising demand for AI, Hon Hai said its cloud and networking division enjoyed strong sales
RSS