Export orders last month expanded 30.5 percent year-on-year to US$70.22 billion, the eighth straight month of double-digit percentage growth and the highest ever for a single month, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
Last month’s figure increased 17 percent from the previous month, and exceeded the ministry’s estimate of US$64 billion to US$66 billion.
Stronger server orders drove the stronger-than-expected result, Department of Statistics Director-General Huang Wei-jie (黃偉傑) told a news conference in Taipei.
Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA
The ministry in a report said orders in the third quarter rose 23.8 percent year-on-year to US$190.69 billion, surpassing its forecast of US$184.5 billion.
In the first nine months of the year, export orders grew 22.3 percent to US$524.37 billion, also the largest for the period, it said.
Export orders this month are expected to fall 2.3 percent month-on-month to US$68.6 billion, or rise 0.5 percent to US$70.6 billion, the ministry said.
On an annual basis, orders are forecast to increase by 23.7 to 27.3 percent, it said.
Order momentum is expected to remain strong this quarter, supported by robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI) products and emerging technologies, Huang said.
Export orders could hit a record high this year, surpassing the previous record of US$674.1 billion in 2021, if orders this quarter reach US$149.7 billion, he said.
The optimism comes as worries about US tariffs and US-China trade tensions have eased, while several institutions have raised global economic growth forecasts for this year, he added.
While end-market demand has not rebounded significantly and China’s oversupply continues to weigh on traditional industries, AI remains a key growth driver for Taiwan, Huang said.
Regardless of the talks about an AI bubble, the main uncertainty is the outcome of a Section 232 investigation under the US Trade Expansion Act of 1962, he said.
Last month, export orders for electronic components surged 45.9 percent year-on-year, as AI and high-performance computing drove demand for integrated circuit production, design, packaging and memory orders, the ministry said.
Orders for information and communications technology products rose 33.1 percent, as strong demand from the AI and cloud service industries drove orders for servers and Internet communication products, while optoelectronic product orders climbed 11.2 percent, and machinery orders rose 11.4 percent due to strong demand for automation equipment in semiconductor production, it said.
In traditional industries, export orders for plastic and rubber products fell 10 percent, and orders for base metals dropped 6.3 percent, while chemical products rose 1.4 percent, ministry data showed.
US tariffs have continued to weigh on orders for plastic and rubber products, as well as machine tools, while base metals face low prices and oversupply from China, Huang said.
Chemical product orders rebounded as demand for medicine — especially from Japan — and petrochemical products increased, he added.
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