The nation’s exports last month slid 3.8 percent from a year earlier to US$27.13 billion, as poor shipments of mineral, chemical and plastic products eclipsed record semiconductor sales, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.
“Despite rebounds in international oil and raw material prices, demand for related products remained sluggish,” Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) told a news conference in Taipei.
That was the reason shipments of mineral products plunged a record 65.5 percent, while shipments of chemical, base metal and plastic products declined 25.3 percent, 23.8 percent and 23.4 percent respectively, Tsai said.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
Price factors aside, a languid global economy caused by the COVID-19 pandemic continued to weigh on demand, she said.
However, sales of electronic components were strong, increasing 23.9 percent to US$11.18 billion, with semiconductor shipments jumping 27.4 percent to US$10.25 billion, moving above US$10 billion for the first time, Tsai said.
The COVID-19 crisis spurred demand for devices used in remote working, learning and entertainment, Tsai said, adding that front-loading by China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) likely also supported semiconductor shipments.
Washington recently imposed new restrictions on the Chinese company’s use of US technology and equipment, which do not affect orders previously placed with Taiwanese suppliers.
Imports fell 8.6 percent to US$22.29 billion last month, as local firms cut back on imports of raw materials and capital equipment by 11.3 percent and 3.2 percent respectively, the ministry’s report showed.
The small decline in imports of capital equipment was no reason to worry, Tsai said.
Taiwan last month had a trade surplus of US$4.84 billion, an annual increase of 26.6 percent.
For the second quarter, exports shrank 2.4 percent from a year earlier to US$79.35 billion, while imports dropped 4 percent to US$67.52 billion.
Outbound shipments would remain in contraction mode this month, dropping 1.5 to 4 percent, Tsai said, hesitating to bet on seasonal movements, citing poor order visibility.
Companies in the 5G network deployment, laptop and data center supply chains are looking at a robust third quarter, but vendors of smartphone parts have adopted a conservative attitude.
Shipments to China last month increased 13.8 percent and those to the US rose 3.7 percent, thanks to tech sales, but trade with Japan, ASEAN members and Europe dropped by double-digit percentages, as economies are struggling to recover from the virus outbreak, the ministry said.
For the first six months, exports increased 0.5 percent from a year earlier to US$158.02 billion, while imports slipped 0.4 percent to US$136.67 billion, it said.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
POWER BUILDUP: Powered by Nvidia’s B200 Blackwell chips, the data center would support MediaTek’s computing power demand and business growth, the company said Smartphone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday launched a new artificial intelligence (AI) data center with a maximum capacity of 45 megawatts to meet its rising demand for computing power required to develop new advanced chips for AI applications. The company has completed the first-phase computing power buildup at the data center in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), providing 15 megawatts of capacity to support its research and development (R&D) capabilities, despite an industrywide shortage of key components, MediaTek said. Supply constraints have plagued a wide range of key components, including memory chips, solid-state drives, power supply units and central
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
RSS