Export orders contracted at a smaller-than-expected rate of 10.4 percent annually to US$37.73 billion last month, reinforcing the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ confidence about the growth prospects during the remainder of this year.
Last month’s performance beat the ministry’s estimation of a yearly reduction ranging from 11 percent to 15.7 percent.
In the first two months of the year, export orders dropped 3.9 percent to US$86.15 billion, an indicator that local companies’ growth momentum improved after their customers reduced inventory.
Photo: CNA
The ministry said that it expects export orders this month to grow 0.9 to 5.2 percent annually to US$47 billion to US$49 billion.
That would bring first-quarter export orders to between US$133.2 billion and US$135.2 billion, representing a slight decline of 0.8 to 2.38 percent from the same period last year.
“With moderating declines, we now have higher confidence that export orders will resume growth in the second quarter, compared with two months ago,” Department of Statistics Director Huang Yu-ling (黃于玲) said via telephone. “We continue to see a strong market for emerging technologies including artificial intelligence [AI] applications, which are to fuel demand for chips and servers made by Taiwanese companies.”
In addition, export orders should trend up in the coming quarters after hitting a trough this quarter, Huang said.
Electronic product orders shrank 4.3 percent to US$13.21 billion last month, but rose 6.3 percent to US$30.66 billion in the first two months of the year, while there was also strong demand for high-performance computing, and AI chip design and foundry services, the ministry said.
Orders for information communications and technology products last month fell 11.3 percent to US$10.45 billion, as weak demand for smartphones and networking devices offset higher bookings for servers and graphics cards.
Orders dipped 16 percent in the first two months to US$24.36 billion, the ministry said.
Orders for optoelectronic products increased 6.6 percent to US$1.41 billion last month, due to higher TV-panel prices and demand for camera lenses, boosting orders in the first two months by 15.2 percent to US$2.99 billion, it said.
Machinery orders plummeted 15.2 percent to US$1.33 billion last month and were down 3.3 percent to US$2.93 billion in the two-month period, it said.
Orders for base metals, mainly steel, plunged 16.1 percent to US$1.8 billion last month, but rose 3.2 percent to US$4.07 billion in the first two months, the ministry said.
Orders for plastic products sank 15.8 percent to US$1.34 billion last month, but rebounded 2.9 percent to US$2.99 billion in the two-month period, it added.
Petrochemical product orders fell 4.5 percent to US$1.34 billion in January, but increased 1.2 percent to US$2.85 billion in the first two months, ministry data showed.
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