Taiwan’s exports last month soared 29.9 percent year-on-year to US$48.66 billion, the second-highest on record, thanks to front-loading demand for tech products used in artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing, after Washington announced a 90-day respite for its “reciprocal” tariffs, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.
Last month’s export momentum proved stronger than expected and is to continue this month, with an annual increase of 15 percent to 20 percent, Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) said.
“Front-loading demand and rush orders are evident across sectors,” Tsai said. “The 90-day pause prompted firms on the sidelines to actively build inventory.”
Photo: CNA
That could disrupt seasonality for technology products — with the first half of this year outperforming the second half in terms of sales, Tsai said.
Outbound shipments of information and communications technology products spiked 60.5 percent annually to US$18.83 billion last month, overtaking electronic components as the top driver, on the back of demand from AI infrastructure and big data centers, she said.
Shipments of electronic components, mainly chips, increased 26.8 percent to US$16.41 billion, consistent with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (台積電) expectations.
The company has said that it does not see customers canceling orders amid uncertainty related to US tariffs.
Front-loading also benefited exports of chemicals, base metals, optical products and machinery equipment, the ministry said, adding that last month, all major markets’ shipments — except Europe — recorded double-digit percentage growth.
Mexico saw a threefold increase, while Malaysia rapidly climbed to the fourth-largest export destination, after China, the US and Japan, Tsai said, adding that it was due to the ongoing global supply chain realignment.
Imports last month also expanded 33 percent year-on-year to US$41.16 billion, fueled by local tech firms’ purchases of capital equipment and the deepening of global division of labor in the tech supply chain, Tsai said.
That gave Taiwan a trade surplus of US$7.21 billion in the month, up 15 percent from a year earlier.
Tsai declined to comment on the effect of the New Taiwan dollar’s rapid appreciation on exports, saying that she cannot pass judgment on the issue based on customs data alone.
However, Tsai said she believed Taiwanese firms command the pricing power in areas where they maintain a strong global competitive edge.
With global cloud service providers’ AI infrastructure investments showing no signs of deceleration, Taiwan appears poised to maintain its export strength in the months ahead, she said.
In the first four months of this year, cumulative exports rose 20.6 percent to US$178.23 billion, while imports gained 20.4 percent to US$147.38 billion from a year earlier, ministry data showed.
HORMUZ ISSUE: The US president said he expected crude prices to drop at the end of the war, which he called a ‘minor excursion’ that could continue ‘for a little while’ The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait started reducing oil production, as the near-closure of the crucial Strait of Hormuz ripples through energy markets and affects global supply. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) is “managing offshore production levels to address storage requirements,” the company said in a statement, without giving details. Kuwait Petroleum Corp said it was lowering production at its oil fields and refineries after “Iranian threats against safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.” The war in the Middle East has all but closed Hormuz, the narrow waterway linking the Persian Gulf to the open seas,
RATIONING: The proposal would give the Trump administration ample leverage to negotiate investments in the US as it decides how many chips to give each country US officials are debating a new regulatory framework for exporting artificial intelligence (AI) chips and are considering requiring foreign nations to invest in US AI data centers or security guarantees as a condition for granting exports of 200,000 chips or more, according to a document seen by Reuters. The rules are not yet final and could change. They would be the first attempt to regulate the flow of AI chips to US allies and partners since US President Donald Trump’s administration said it rescinded its predecessor’s so-called AI diffusion rules. Those rules sought to keep a significant amount of AI
Apple Inc increased iPhone production in India by about 53 percent last year and now makes a quarter of its marquee devices there, reflecting the US company’s efforts to avoid tariffs on China. The company assembled about 55 million iPhones in India last year, up from 36 million a year earlier, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named because the numbers aren’t public. Apple makes about 220 million to 230 million iPhones a year globally, with India’s share of the total increasing rapidly. Apple has accelerated its expansion in the world’s most populous country in recent years, bolstered
HEADWINDS: The company said it expects its computer business, as well as consumer electronics and communications segments to see revenue declines due to seasonality Pegatron Corp (和碩) yesterday said it aims to grow its artificial intelligence (AI) server revenue more than 10-fold this year from last year, driven by orders from neocloud solutions clients and large cloud service providers. The electronics manufacturing service provider said AI server revenue growth would be driven primarily by the Nvidia Corp GB300 server platform. Server shipments are expected to increase each quarter this year, with the second half likely to outperform the first half, it said. The AI server market is expected to broaden this year as more inference applications emerge, which would drive demand for system-on-chip, application-specific integrated circuits
RSS