Exports last month increased a modest 3.5 percent year-on-year to US$37.36 billion, as shipments of electronics used in artificial intelligence (AI) remained strong and some non-tech products came out of the woods, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.
The increase lagged behind the 7 to 10 percent range the ministry expected, as firms at home and abroad largely maintained a cautious business approach, but their inventory mostly returned to healthy levels and the global economy is improving, Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) said.
There is a lingering uneven recovery between product categories and export destinations — with exports of information and communication technology (ICT) products to the US driving most of the growth, helped by aggressive spending of US technology giants on AI infrastructure, she said.
Photo: CNA
The megatrend explained why ICT shipments such as AI servers and graphics cards surged 62.4 percent to US$9.42 billion, underpinning 25.2 percent of overall shipments, Tsai said.
Meanwhile, exports of electronics, mainly chips, shed 11 percent to US$13.4 billion, she said, adding that the retreat in electronics likely had to do with the reclassification of partial exports as imports to reflect changes in manufacturing locations.
It is better to combine electronics and ICT shipments to gain a better picture, as the two categories made up 64 percent of total exports and made a solid gain in the first five months of this year, she said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) robust revenue lent support to such an interpretation, Tsai said.
TSMC yesterday posted NT$229.62 billion (US$7.12 billion) of revenue for last month, a 30.2 percent spike from a year earlier.
Shipments of optical and precision products plunged 31.2 percent to US$892 million, while exports of transportation tools shrank 25 percent to US$880 million, the ministry’s report showed.
On the other hand, some non-tech products emerged from a slowdown, as customers started to rebuild inventory, Tsai said.
Exports of plastic grew 0.6 percent, while chemical and mineral products saw a growth 8.9 percent, the ministry said.
Shipments of textile products bounced 10.2 percent, given the demand for sportswear for the upcoming Olympic Games, she said.
Imports increased 0.6 percent to US$31.31 billion, giving Taiwan a trade surplus of US$6.05 billion, which is 21.6 percent higher than a year earlier, the ministry said.
Imports of agricultural and industrial raw materials picked up 5.8 percent, while imports of semiconductor equipment and luxury products declined 11.4 percent and 10.7 percent each, it said.
In the first five months, exports expanded 9.1 percent to US$185.14 billion and imports rose 3.2 percent to US$153.69 billion, it said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has secured three construction permits for its plan to build a state-of-the-art A14 wafer fab in Taichung, and is likely to start construction soon, the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau said yesterday. Speaking with CNA, Wang Chun-chieh (王俊傑), deputy director general of the science park bureau, said the world’s largest contract chipmaker has received three construction permits — one to build a fab to roll out sophisticated chips, another to build a central utility plant to provide water and electricity for the facility and the other to build three office buildings. With the three permits, TSMC
The DBS Foundation yesterday announced the launch of two flagship programs, “Silver Motion” and “Happier Caregiver, Healthier Seniors,” in partnership with CCILU Ltd, Hondao Senior Citizens’ Welfare Foundation and the Garden of Hope Foundation to help Taiwan face the challenges of a rapidly aging population. The foundation said it would invest S$4.91 million (US$3.8 million) over three years to foster inclusion and resilience in an aging society. “Aging may bring challenges, but it also brings opportunities. With many Asian markets rapidly becoming super-aged, the DBS Foundation is working with a regional ecosystem of like-minded partners across the private, public and people sectors
BREAKTHROUGH TECH: Powertech expects its fan-out PLP system to become mainstream, saying it can offer three-times greater production throughput Chip packaging service provider Powertech Technology Inc (力成科技) plans to more than double its capital expenditures next year to more than NT$40 billion (US$1.31 billion) as demand for its new panel-level packaging (PLP) technology, primarily used in chips for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, has greatly exceeded what it can supply. A significant portion of the budget, about US$1 billion, would be earmarked for fan-out PLP technology, Powertech told investors yesterday. Its heavy investment in fan-out PLP technology over the past 10 years is expected to bear fruit in 2027 after the technology enters volume production, it said, adding that the tech would
RUN IT BACK: A succesful first project working with hyperscalers to design chips encouraged MediaTek to start a second project, aiming to hit stride in 2028 MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip supplier, yesterday said it is engaging a second hyperscaler to help design artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators used in data centers following a similar project expected to generate revenue streams soon. The first AI accelerator project is to bring in US$1 billion revenue next year and several billion US dollars more in 2027, MediaTek chief executive officer Rick Tsai (蔡力行) told a virtual investor conference yesterday. The second AI accelerator project is expected to contribute to revenue beginning in 2028, Tsai said. MediaTek yesterday raised its revenue forecast for the global AI accelerator used
RSS