Taiwan’s export orders surged 19.7 percent annually to US$43.06 billion in January, the highest performance for the month since the government started collecting data in 1953, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
“Both tech and traditional industries showed robust growth last month on continued expansion of the global economy. A lower comparison base last year also helped boost the scale of expansion,” Department of Statistics Director-General Lin Lee-jen (林麗貞) told a news conference in Taipei.
The January increase represents the 18th consecutive month of annual growth, the ministry’s data showed.
The last time Taiwan saw such a long period of year-on-year growth was between October 2009 and November 2011, spanning 26 months in total, Lin said.
After taking into account potential disruptions from the Lunar New Year holiday, combined export orders for the first two months of the year are forecast to grow by at least 10 percent from the same period last year, Lin said.
“It is certain that the export orders for the January-to-March period will grow from the same period last year,” she said, adding that although the smartphone industry is entering a slow season, the demand for “smart” speakers, automotive electronics and cryptocurrency mining remains strong.
Traditional industries, like basic metals and machinery goods, could still see stable order intake this quarter, on the back of rising global raw materials prices, Lin said.
Last month, orders for electronics components and information and communications technology rose by 12.5 percent and 17.5 percent respectively, representing records for the same month since 1953, she said.
Lin attributed the growth momentum to smartphone assembling orders for an international brand, as well as global demand for servers, graphics processing units used in cryptocurrency mining, gaming products and networking devices.
Orders for basic metals, chemicals and machinery goods all showed double-digit percentage growth from a year earlier, supported by rising prices of steel and crude oil, coupled with an increase in orders for industrial automation equipment, the ministry said.
Orders for plastics and rubber products jumped 42.5 percent annually, mainly benefiting from Japan’s anti-dumping duties on Chinese polyethylene terephthalate — which is used to make plastic bottles — as this prompted clients to shift their orders to Taiwanese suppliers, Lin said.
The US continued to be Taiwan’s largest export destination, with orders growing 16.3 percent annually. Orders from China and Hong Kong were the second largest, with orders surging by 31 percent from a year ago, the ministry said.
Year-on-year, orders from Europe and Japan grew 15.3 percent and 17.8 percent respectively last month, the report showed.
Taiwan will prioritize the development of silicon photonics by taking advantage of its strength in the semiconductor industry to build another shield to protect the local economy, National Development Council (NDC) Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) said yesterday. Speaking at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee, Liu said Taiwan already has the artificial intelligence (AI) industry as a shield, after the semiconductor industry, to safeguard the country, and is looking at new unique fields to build more economic shields. While Taiwan will further strengthen its existing shields, over the longer term, the country is determined to focus on such potential segments as
UNCERTAINTY: Innolux activated a stringent supply chain management mechanism, as it did during the COVID-19 pandemic, to ensure optimal inventory levels for customers Flat-panel display makers AUO Corp (友達) and Innolux Corp (群創) yesterday said that about 12 to 20 percent of their display business is at risk of potential US tariffs and that they would relocate production or shipment destinations to mitigate the levies’ effects. US tariffs would have a direct impact of US$200 million on AUO’s revenue, company chairman Paul Peng (彭雙浪) told reporters on the sidelines of the Touch Taiwan trade show in Taipei yesterday. That would make up about 12 percent of the company’s overall revenue. To cope with the tariff uncertainty, AUO plans to allocate its production to manufacturing facilities in
COLLABORATION: Given Taiwan’s key position in global supply chains, the US firm is discussing strategies with local partners and clients to deal with global uncertainties Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) yesterday said it is meeting with local ecosystem partners, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), to discuss strategies, including long-term manufacturing, to navigate uncertainties such as US tariffs, as Taiwan occupies an important position in global supply chains. AMD chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) told reporters that Taiwan is an important part of the chip designer’s ecosystem and she is discussing with partners and customers in Taiwan to forge strong collaborations on different areas during this critical period. AMD has just become the first artificial-intelligence (AI) server chip customer of TSMC to utilize its advanced
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
RSS