Router and network switch exports are expected to reach a record-high this year, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
From January to last month, exports grew 29.4 percent to US$3.13 billion, from the same period last year, according to data released by the Department of Statistics.
Last year was already a record year for router and network switch exports, as they rose 58.1 percent year-on-year to US$4.64 billion, the data showed.
“We are on track to break last year’s record,” department Deputy Director-General Huang Wei-jie (黃偉傑) said.
The growth is due to increased COVID-19 related demand for work-from-home equipment, as well as due to US tariffs aimed at Chinese-made goods, he said.
Routers are needed to connect computers to the Internet, while network switches allow devices, such as computers, printers and servers, to share information and communicate with each other.
There are still uncertainties due to the possibility of a second wave of COVID-19 infections, Huang said.
Department data showed that US orders doubled from 2018 to last year, accounting for more than 50 percent of Taiwanese exports of routers and network switches.
In the first seven months of this year, US orders contributed 52.9 percent to Taiwan’s total exports of such products, the ministry said.
From January to May, the market share of Taiwanese routers and network switches rose to the third-largest in the US market at 10.9 percent, while China (including Hong Kong) led with 34.1 percent and Mexico was second at 18.4 percent, the ministry said.
Compared with the same period in 2017, exports from China (including Hong Kong) lost 14.1 percent of the US market share, while Taiwan and Vietnam gained 7.6 percent and 7.8 percent respectively, which the ministry attributed to a supply chain shift amid US-China trade tensions, it said.
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