Products across the board saw declines in export orders last month, except for information and communications technology (ICT) items, as orders dropped for the eighth consecutive month, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
Orders totaled US$38.5 billion, down 4.5 percent year-on-year, with cumulative orders in the first six months decreasing 6.5 percent to US$222.86 billion, the ministry said.
Orders for ICT products rose by 4.7 percent to US$11.09 billion, which the ministry attributed to a growth in orders of high-priced laptops and the impact of frontloaded laptop orders.
US orders for ICT products, Taiwan’s biggest market in the segment, increased by US$510 million year-on-year, taking up to 41.5 percent of the sector’s total orders, the ministry said.
Orders for electronics products slipped 4.3 percent to US$9.93 billion due to weak global demand and plunging DRAM chip prices, it said.
While China and Hong Kong remain the biggest markets for Taiwanese electronics products, their export orders in this category declined by US$540 million from a year earlier, while orders to the US increased by US$220 million, the ministry said.
Due to an oversaturated flat-panel market, the result of increasing Chinese production, optoelectronics orders dropped by 8.5 percent to US$1.85 billion, with orders for China and Hong Kong declining by US$160 million, it said.
Machinery makers continued to suffer from the US-China trade dispute, with their export orders dropping 22.3 percent to US$1.64 billion, while base metal products saw a 15.7 percent decrease to US$2.11 billion, with the US cutting orders by US$160 million, the ministry said.
Petrochemical products and plastics/rubber products were also affected by sluggish market demand caused by the US-China dispute, with orders contracting by 18.5 percent and 9.6 percent respectively, to US$1.63 billion and US$1.83, the ministry said.
Falling international crude oil prices also contributed to the declines, it added.
Overall, the nation’s export orders to the US hit a record high at US$11.7 billion, up 6.8 percent year-on-year and making it the nation’s biggest overseas market, while China and Hong Kong followed closely at US$9.35 billion, down 14.6 percent year-on-year, it said.
Europe came in third with a 5.3 percent yearly decline to US$6.75, due to slipping orders of petrochemicals and base metal products, while ASEAN and Japan ranked fourth and fifth respectively, with orders increasing by 13 percent and 7.9 percent.
Orders are unlikely to pick up if the US-China dispute drags on, because that would result in slow global demand and falling metal and crude oil prices, the ministry said.
A survey of exporting companies also suggested that orders would further decline this month, it said.
China’s economic planning agency yesterday outlined details of measures aimed at boosting the economy, but refrained from major spending initiatives. The piecemeal nature of the plans announced yesterday appeared to disappoint investors who were hoping for bolder moves, and the Shanghai Composite Index gave up a 10 percent initial gain as markets reopened after a weeklong holiday to end 4.59 percent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dived 9.41 percent. Chinese National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Zheng Shanjie (鄭珊潔) said the government would frontload 100 billion yuan (US$14.2 billion) in spending from the government’s budget for next year in addition
Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) suffered its biggest stock decline in more than a month after the company unveiled new artificial intelligence (AI) chips, but did not provide hoped-for information on customers or financial performance. The stock slid 4 percent to US$164.18 on Thursday, the biggest single-day drop since Sept. 3. Shares of the company remain up 11 percent this year. AMD has emerged as the biggest contender to Nvidia Corp in the lucrative market of AI processors. The company’s latest chips would exceed some capabilities of its rival, AMD chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) said at an event hosted by
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
TECH JUGGERNAUT: TSMC shares have more than doubled since ChatGPT’s launch in late 2022, as demand for cutting-edge artificial intelligence chips remains high Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday posted a better-than-expected 39 percent rise in quarterly revenue, assuaging concerns that artificial intelligence (AI) hardware spending is beginning to taper off. The main chipmaker for Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc reported third-quarter sales of NT$759.69 billion (US$23.6 billion), compared with the average analyst projection of NT$748 billion. For last month alone, TSMC reported revenue jumped 39.6 percent year-on-year to NT$251.87 billion. Taiwan’s largest company is to disclose its full third-quarter earnings on Thursday next week and update its outlook. Hsinchu-based TSMC produces the cutting-edge chips needed to train AI. The company now makes more
RSS