Export orders last month grew by a better-than-expected 11.6 percent annually to a new monthly record of US$48.69 billion, driven by robust orders for smartphones and other consumer electronics amid the year-end shopping season, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
The performance beat the ministry’s forecast of between 7.7 percent and 10 percent annual growth.
“Not only was the result the third straight month to break the nation’s monthly records, it also represented the 16th consecutive month of annual expansion,” Department of Statistics Director-General Lin Lee-jen (林麗貞) told a news conference.
The result brought cumulative export orders in the first 11 months of this year to US$444.33 billion, an increase of 10.2 percent year-on-year, ministry data showed.
The ministry raised its whole-year forecast for export orders from a previous estimate of between US$489.5 billion and US$492.5 billion to between US$492.8 billion and US$493 billion due to the better-than-expected performance last month, Lin said.
That would translate into an 11 percent year-on-year growth in export orders this year, she said.
Last month, orders of electronics goods and information and communications technology (ICT) products — the pillars of the nation’s export orders — both reached new monthly records, the data showed.
ICT products last month surged 11.4 percent annually to US$16.25 billion on demand for smartphones, notebook computers, tablets, servers and networking devices, Lin said.
Orders of electronics goods — which include foundry, testing and packaging services, as well as memory products and chips — last month rose 7.6 percent year-on-year to US$12.65 billion, supported by growing demand for mobile devices, automotive electronics, game consoles and high-performance computing, she said.
Export orders of basic metals, machinery equipment and rubber and plastic products last month surged by double-digit percentages from the same period a year earlier, as the rising average selling price of steel and oil spurred demand, she added.
The US last month remained the largest contributor of export orders, with orders placed from the country rising 5.8 percent to US$13.73 billion on demand for game consoles and smartphones, Lin said.
Orders from China and Hong Kong surged 12.8 percent annually to US$11.56 billion, she said, attributing the growth to orders of electronics goods, large-sized display panels and rubber and plastic goods.
Orders from Europe jumped 20.2 percent year-on-year to US$11.75 billion on the back of the strong demand for ICT products and electronics products, Lin said.
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