Total trade with Germany last year surpassed US$20 billion for the first time, the German Trade Office Taipei said.
The figure rose to a record US$20.7 billion, up 27.5 percent from US$16.2 billion in 2020, the office said in a statement.
“German-Taiwanese trade relations developed overwhelmingly positively in 2021, defying the [COVID-19] pandemic,” office Executive Director Axel Limberg said in a statement.
Germany last year retained its position as Taiwan’s most important trade partner in Europe, Limberg said.
It is particularly gratifying that imports and exports between Germany and Taiwan rose significantly, indicating that bilateral economic relations are mutually beneficial, he said.
Taiwan’s exports to Germany were US$8.2 billion last year, up 35.4 percent year-on-year, while imports accounted for US$12.5 billion, up 22.8 percent from a year earlier, according to Ministry of Finance data cited by the German Trade Office.
Exports of machinery and electrical equipment totaled US$4.2 billion last year, accounting for about half of all exports, with electronic parts, and information, communication and audio-video products among the most popular items, the data showed.
Machinery and electrical equipment were the top imports from Germany, worth almost US$4.9 billion, with machinery accounting for the biggest share with about 46 percent, the office said.
While overall approved foreign direct investment in Taiwan fell by 18.2 percent last year, German investment increased by 67.3 percent year-on-year to US$252.6 million, the office said, citing Ministry of Economic Affairs data.
Limberg said that technologies from both sides perfectly complement each other, and further expansion in international cooperation would be crucial to shaping key technologies such as Industry 4.0, artificial intelligence and biotechnology.
The office said that it would host an economic outlook meeting with the Ministry of Economic Affairs and major German companies in Taiwan on Feb. 22, during which they would assess “the current state of the German economy in Taiwan” and discuss the future of the Taiwanese economy, as well as key industries.
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves fell below the US$600 billion mark at the end of last month, with the central bank reporting a total of US$596.89 billion — a decline of US$8.6 billion from February — ending a three-month streak of increases. The central bank attributed the drop to a combination of factors such as outflows by foreign institutional investors, currency fluctuations and its own market interventions. “The large-scale outflows disrupted the balance of supply and demand in the foreign exchange market, prompting the central bank to intervene repeatedly by selling US dollars to stabilize the local currency,” Department of Foreign
ENERGY ISSUES: The TSIA urged the government to increase natural gas and helium reserves to reduce the impact of the Middle East war on semiconductor supply stability Chip testing and packaging service provider ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控) yesterday said it planned to invest more than NT$100 billion (US$3.15 billion) in building a new advanced chip testing facility in Kaohsiung to keep up with customer demand driven by the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. That would be included in the company’s capital expenditure budget next year, ASE said. There is also room to raise this year’s capital spending budget from a record-high US$7 billion estimated three months ago, it added. ASE would have six factories under construction this year, another record-breaking number, ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu
The EU and US are nearing an agreement to coordinate on producing and securing critical minerals, part of a push to break reliance on Chinese supplies. The potential deal would create incentives, such as minimum prices, that could advantage non-Chinese suppliers, according to a draft of an “action plan” seen by Bloomberg. The EU and US would also cooperate on standards, investments and joint projects, as well as coordinate on any supply disruptions by countries like China. The two sides are additionally seeking other “like-minded partners” to join a multicountry accord to help create these new critical mineral supply chains, which feed into
For weeks now, the global tech industry has been waiting for a major artificial intelligence (AI) launch from DeepSeek (深度求索), seen as a benchmark for China’s progress in the fast-moving field. More than a year has passed since the start-up put Chinese AI on the map in early last year with a low-cost chatbot that performed at a similar level to US rivals. However, despite reports and rumors about its imminent release, DeepSeek’s next-generation “V4” model is nowhere in sight. Speculation is also swirling over the geopolitical implications of which computer chips were chosen to train and power the new
RSS