The nation’s machinery exports last month expanded 3.7 percent year-on-year to US$2.73 billion, benefiting from robust front-loading demand from US customers amid tariff concerns, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (台灣機械工業同業公會) said yesterday.
That marked the fifth consecutive month of annual growth, as customers requested their products be shipped before yesterday’s expiration of a 90-day reprieve from the US’ tariffs, the association said in a report.
However, drastic appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar tarnished the performance. Machinery exports dipped 4.2 percent annually to about NT$81.53 billion (US$2.8 billion) last month from a year ago, snapping the gains seen in the previous four months, the association’s data showed.
Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA-EFE
Local machinery exporters are losing orders to Asian competitors, while profitability is being squeezed by the local currency’s rise, the association said.
The NT dollar rose 12.4 percent against the US dollar from April 1 to Tuesday, surpassing a 6.7 percent increase for the won, 2.1 percent for the yen and 1.3 percent for the yuan, it said.
A higher US “reciprocal” tariff on Taiwanese goods would deal another blow to local machinery makers, the association said.
The White House on Monday announced 25 percent import duties on Japan and South Korea. In early April, the US set a 32 percent tariff on Taiwan.
During the first six months of this year, machinery exports expanded 5.3 percent annually to US$14.92 billion, the data showed.
The US was the top export destination for local machinery suppliers, with shipments totaling US$3.97 billion in the first half of this year, up 16.3 percent annually.
China followed, with exports inching up 1.1 percent to US$2.41 billion, while Japan was third, with exports of US$1.2 billion, rising 14.1 percent annually, data showed.
Metrology equipment was the largest export item, making up 17.6 percent with US$2.62 billion of exports during the six-month period. Electronic equipment made up 16 percent of the total, with exports of US$2.38 billion, while machinery tools made up 6.8 percent, with exports of US$1.01 billion, data showed.
Taiwan imported about US$32.39 billion of machinery during the January-to-June period, surging 53.5 percent from the same period last year, the association said.
Electronic equipment was the biggest item purchased by local firms, soaring 85.9 percent from last year with US$14.19 billion in spending. That made up 43.8 percent of total imports.
Metrology equipment followed with imports of US$7.9 billion, accounting for 24.4 percent, and spiking 80.6 percent annually. Turbines were a distant third with imports plummeting 28.6 percent year-on-year to US$1.29 billion, making up 4 percent of the total, data showed.
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose to No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) at 348th, Pegatron Corp (和碩) at 461st, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) at 494th and Wistron Corp (緯創) at
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong
ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip assembly and testing service provider, yesterday said it would boost equipment capital expenditure by up to 16 percent for this year to cope with strong customer demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Aside from AI, a growing demand for semiconductors used in the automotive and industrial sectors is to drive ASE’s capacity next year, the Kaohsiung-based company said. “We do see the disparity between AI and other general sectors, and that pretty much aligns the scenario in the first half of this year,” ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu (吳田玉) told an
RSS