Taiwan’s exports last month expanded 12 percent from a year earlier to US$31.99 billion, accelerating from an 11.2 percent hike in October, as local firms are seeing the biggest-ever boom in demand for technology products, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.
The healthy showing came ahead of the holiday season, and momentum could gain further traction this month with an estimated annual increase of 7 to 9 percent, the ministry said.
“This time around, the high season might prove the strongest in history by measure of export volume [and] is bound to beat the forecast last month by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics,” Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) told a news conference in Taipei.
In the first 11 months of this year, cumulative exports grew 4.2 percent from a year earlier to US$312.29 billion, surpassing the 3.8 percent increase the statistics agency projected for the whole of this year, Tsai said, linking the boon to insatiable demand for new technology applications, as well as remote working and schooling.
Shipments of electronics soared 19.5 percent year-on-year to US$12.64 billion, with semiconductors accounting for 35.8 percent of overall exports, the ministry’s report showed.
Information and communications technology product shipments grew 18.5 percent to US$4.76 billion, as demand for PCs and peripheral gadgets remained vigorous, the report said.
Exports of optical devices, mainly flat panels, climbed 13.7 percent to US$1.12 billion, due partly to tight supply, as some suppliers cut output or exited the market, Tsai said.
Non-tech sectors reported an improvement of 3.7 percent to 11 percent for shipments of base metal, plastic and chemical products, while the decline in mineral product exports eased to 46 percent, the report said.
Shipments to China, the US and ASEAN markets all picked up by double-digit percentage points, although shipments to Europe slowed to 6.8 percent and those to Japan contracted by a mild 2.3 percent, it said.
Ending months of decline, imports gained 10 percent to US$26.72 billion last month, the third highest in history, underpinned by active purchase of agricultural and industrial raw materials, memory devices, gold jewelry and luxury items, Tsai said.
Imports of capital equipment dropped a fractional 0.3 percent as semiconductor equipment declined 17.7 percent, the report said.
Taiwan has a trade surplus of US$5.27 billion, 23.4 percent higher than last year, it said.
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