Taiwan’s exports of integrated circuit chips last month dropped for a sixth consecutive month on slowing global demand.
Chip exports decreased 20.8 percent from a year earlier to a four-month low of US$12.6 billion, Ministry of Finance data showed.
Taiwan is home to Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp’s go-to chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), along with a coterie of smaller, but essential chip industry players.
Photo: Reuters
The annual decline in chip exports was the largest since March 2009, partly amplified by a high base in June last year.
“The demand for integrated circuits continues to be weak,” the ministry said in a statement accompanying the data, as sticky inflation and continuous rate hikes by central banks have tapered the global economy.
Consumer tech firms have spent much of this year working through an inventory glut, which is expected to weigh on sales for the likes of TSMC through at least the end of the year.
Sales of smartphones have yet to resume growth after a protracted slump last year, while PC and laptop makers are also struggling to compel new purchases and continue to see double-digit declines.
US-China trade tensions have also affected Taiwan’s biggest industry. Shipments to China, including Hong Kong, which together account for more than 50 percent of Taiwan’s chip exports, fell for an eighth consecutive month, the data showed.
However, Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧) is cautiously optimistic about Taiwan’s semiconductor industry’s business outlook for this quarter.
“Looking into the third quarter, we expect handset related semiconductor supply chain to see downside risk given weaker-than-expected consumer and handset demand recovery in China,” Yuanta said in a note on Tuesday. “On the other hand, we expect PC and memory sectors to see more noticeable fundamental improvement as inventory digestion ends, with strong seasonality for consumer electronics to emerge in the third Additional reporting by staff writer
ELECTRONICS BOOST: A predicted surge in exports would likely be driven by ICT products, exports of which have soared 84.7 percent from a year earlier, DBS said DBS Bank Ltd (星展銀行) yesterday raised its GDP growth forecast for Taiwan this year to 4 percent from 3 percent, citing robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI)-related exports and accelerated shipment activity, which are expected to offset potential headwinds from US tariffs. “Our GDP growth forecast for 2025 is revised up to 4 percent from 3 percent to reflect front-loaded exports and strong AI demand,” Singapore-based DBS senior economist Ma Tieying (馬鐵英) said in an online briefing. Taiwan’s second-quarter performance beat expectations, with GDP growth likely surpassing 5 percent, driven by a 34.1 percent year-on-year increase in exports, Ma said, citing government
UNIFYING OPPOSITION: Numerous companies have registered complaints over the potential levies, bringing together rival automakers in voicing their reservations US President Donald Trump is readying plans for industry-specific tariffs to kick in alongside his country-by-country duties in two weeks, ramping up his push to reshape the US’ standing in the global trading system by penalizing purchases from abroad. Administration officials could release details of Trump’s planned 50 percent duty on copper in the days before they are set to take effect on Friday next week, a person familiar with the matter said. That is the same date Trump’s “reciprocal” levies on products from more than 100 nations are slated to begin. Trump on Tuesday said that he is likely to impose tariffs
HELPING HAND: Approving the sale of H20s could give China the edge it needs to capture market share and become the global standard, a US representative said The US President Donald Trump administration’s decision allowing Nvidia Corp to resume shipments of its H20 artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China risks bolstering Beijing’s military capabilities and expanding its capacity to compete with the US, the head of the US House Select Committee on Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party said. “The H20, which is a cost-effective and powerful AI inference chip, far surpasses China’s indigenous capability and would therefore provide a substantial increase to China’s AI development,” committee chairman John Moolenaar, a Michigan Republican, said on Friday in a letter to US Secretary of
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) market value closed above US$1 trillion for the first time in Taipei last week, with a raised sales forecast driven by robust artificial intelligence (AI) demand. TSMC saw its Taiwanese shares climb to a record high on Friday, a near 50 percent rise from an April low. That has made it the first Asian stock worth more than US$1 trillion, since PetroChina Co (中國石油天然氣) briefly reached the milestone in 2007. As investors turned calm after their aggressive buying on Friday, amid optimism over the chipmaker’s business outlook, TSMC lost 0.43 percent to close at NT$1,150
RSS